Catching Fire
by AllyrienDM
Summary: Because life in Eureka wasn't complicated enough, the powers that be have seen fit to throw in a space mission, a conspiracy, and family dynamics. An "Everything Is Illuminated" AU rewrite of Season 4.5.
1. Space Oddity

**A/N & A Big Disclaimer**: Here begins the sequel to Everything Is Illuminated. We're switching things up with a rewrite of Season 4.5, if you hadn't already got that memo. That means that substantial tracts of dialogue, and events, are borrowed _directly_ from the show. This is pretty easily defined as plagiarism, though I make no pretension to ownership of Eureka in general or the dialogue specifically.

* * *

Catching Fire

She hadn't believed Allison.

Jo stared blankly at the wall over the humming breast pump. Allison had tried to warn her months ago about moments like these. "Kids are exhausting," she'd said, and Jo had smiled and kept her own counsel. She'd been to war after all, hadn't she? She knew from exhaustion. Surely a baby would be relatively easy in comparison.

Dear God, she was tired.

Jo set aside the bottles of fresh breast milk, wrinkling her nose in distaste. She'd become accustomed to life as Claire's perpetual juice bar (as Zane had so tastefully put it), but this was the first time she'd used the pump in order to provide someone else with her own breast milk. Of course, it was also the first time she'd left her daughter for more than an hour or two, but it wasn't like she had a choice on either count. Today would be her first day at GD after four months of maternity leave.

And her first duty of the morning was, of all things, to attend a robot wedding. Zane passed by on his way to the fridge, already fully outfitted in his new tuxedo, and rubbed Jo's shoulder in silent reassurance. His days of leave had ended a couple weeks before hers, a discrepancy about which he'd been oddly silent.

Jo removed the breast pump and fussed with her top before crossing the room to join her fiance by the fridge. She had just reached out to grab the handle when a low wail came over the monitor placed on the island countertop behind them and both Zane and Jo froze, looking at each other. The cry heightened in its pitch. Zane gave Jo a wry smile.

"At least it's still warm," he said, gesturing at the freshly bottled milk. "I'll go." Jo shook her head.

"We're going to need that tux," she pointed out, already moving toward their bedroom. "Spit-up is not your ideal wedding accessory." Zane grinned, leaning against the counter.

"But it looks so hot on you," he said, waggling his eyebrows in suggestive mockery.

"Can it, sweetheart," Jo's voice trailed back to him as she vanished through the bedroom door. "Or I'll have Fargo send you to the mucous labs again."

"Empty threats!" Zane called after her, raising his voice to be heard. "There's nothing more disgusting in GD than a four month old!" Jo reappeared through the doorway, one eyebrow raised.

"You want to say that to our face, stud?" Claire was pressed to Jo's chest, intent on nursing. Zane's eyes softened at the sight.

"I suppose she's not so bad," he allowed, crossing the room to join them by the couch.

"Says you," Jo muttered. But her eyes shone as she watched Claire eat. She glanced up at Zane. "I don't really want to go," she admitted. "I thought I would be clawing at the walls by now, but I keep thinking: it's so soon." Zane wrapped an arm around them carefully, pressing a kiss into Jo's hair.

"I bet you'll feel differently once you see what's waiting for you at GD." Zane assured her. Jo made a face.

"What, more paperwork?" Zane laughed.

"Come on, it's been a while now but you know how it goes. This is Eureka, and Allison cleared you for full duty. You'll be plenty busy." Jo gave him a reluctant smile.

"I suppose that's true." She looked back down suddenly as Claire, appetite sated, gave her an impatient kick. "Hey now, none of that." She handed the bottle to Zane and lifted Claire up to rest on her shoulder, where a small towel was ready and waiting. She began patting Claire's back gently, and Zane glanced at the clock with a frown.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready? I can take her, you know. I'll be careful with the tux." As if on cue, the phone rang. Jo nodded toward the phone.

"Get that, would you?" She asked, ignoring his question as she slid Claire onto her lap, bracing the little girl in a sitting position.

"Hello?" Jo watched as Zane listened to their unknown caller, slowly raising his eyebrows with amusement. "Alright, then. See you around, Carter." He hung up, looking somewhat bemused. "S.A.R.A.H's called off the wedding. You've been granted a reprieve." Jo rolled her eyes, turning back to her daughter.

"I would've made it." Zane wisely refrained from pointing out that they'd had less than a half hour, and it took at least ten minutes to reach Carter's place. Instead, he watched as Jo bounced the baby on her lap.

"Sorry, Claire-bear, no weddings for you today," she told her. Claire gave her mother a wide, gummy grin, which Jo returned.

"She doesn't seem too disappointed," Zane commented.

"And you are?" Jo asked skeptically. Zane favored her with a warm look.

"I was hoping to get some dancing in. You know, practice." Jo's eyes sparkled as she stood and handed him their daughter.

"I'm sure we can arrange for some... _private _lessons to make up for it." She kissed Claire on the forehead. "Mama's going to go get dressed now, Claire-bear." Zane watched her go, eyes tracing her curves, until a thought occurred to him.

"Jo? When you say private lessons, you don't actually mean dance lessons, right?" Jo just smiled back at him as she disappeared into their bedroom. "Jo!" In his arms, Claire burbled disapprovingly at his volumes. He looked down at her. "Daddy can't help it, little girl, she's got me wrapped around her finger. As do you." Claire smiled at him. "Yeaah, you do." He muttered.

* * *

Jo made it to work at nine, though just barely. She'd stopped at Cafe Diem to procure her own breakfast, and it had been catering chaos after the abruptly cancelled wedding. Vincent had flat out refused to give her a breakfast smoothie and muffin if she didn't also eat a piece of the cake from the ill-fated wedding, and had in fact fixed her with a stern eye as he'd told her that she had better not follow S.A.R.A.H.'s lead.

_"Jo, I am truly happy for you and Zane but if you so much as think of changing your mind at the last minute... you realize this is the second wedding in a _row _that's been cancelled on me? Dr. Stark's death was a terrible tragedy, nobody could have predicted it, but this time... this had better be the last, is all I'm saying." _No, Vincent was not at all pleased.

Fargo met her in the rotunda, full of opinions as always.

"I'm just glad she finally came to her senses," Fargo continued, as Jo paged through the reports she'd been given by her second-in-command, who'd been taking her place while she was on leave.

"Really?" Jo asked, half paying attention. "I thought everyone in this place was dying to study a happy little computer couple."

"S.A.R.A.H's just a machine to these people. As the father of the bride - well, the programmer, of the bride - everything happened just... too fast for me." Jo, who knew a thing or two about fast-paced relationships, hid a smirk. "I'm sure you and Zane will understand one day." Fargo added. Jo turned to face him, raising her eyebrows.

"I'd like to get her crawling before we marry her off, if it's all the same to you. Or out of diapers. Or eating solid food." Zane came up from behind her, catching the last few words.

"Yeah, solid food sounds good to me, too. I miss _those_," he said making a vaguely obscene cupping gesture in the direction of her breasts. Fargo gave him a revolted look.

"Don't you have work to do? Say, an ion damper that was supposed to be ready, oh, I don't know, yesterday?" Zane shot him a look, hoping to cut him off before he said anything that would provoke an interrogation from Jo.

"I'll get to it, little big man." He turned to Jo. "Claire is all set with her 'Auntie Grace'," he said with exaggerated finger apostrophes.

"Good," Jo said, ignoring his mockery of the name she'd offered Grace in pursuit of her babysitting skills. "But we have to come up with some kind of alternative, and soon. Grace has done more than enough for us already. She has to work too." Zane raised his eyebrows.

"If you'd just let that woman from reproductive biology - "

"The blonde harlot lays so much as a finger on my daughter, I'll break yours. Again." Jo said, cutting him off without even looking up from her tablet. Zane gave Fargo a conspiratorial smile.

"She's such a sweet-talker," he said in a stage-whisper. Jo rolled her eyes, turning to Fargo.

"So from what I'm seeing on the overnight report, the worst we have to deal with right away is a micro-breach on the level two sewage line - it tripped the bio-sensor, but it's nothing major, just... _annoying_." She said, with a pointed look at Zane, who grinned and pressed a swift kiss to her cheek. She bristled slightly, thinking it might be time for another conversation regarding public displays of affection at work, but he backed away at a respectful pace, and she decided to let it slide. They both just needed to do a little adjusting, was all.

"Catch you later, Mommy," he said, turning to leave. Jo groaned.

"Really? We're going to be _those _parents?" she complained. His grin didn't fade for even a second.

"Ion damper! Now!" Fargo shouted after him. Zane waved a dismissive hand over his head as he sauntered away, not even bothering to turn around. Fargo muttered something about the mucous lab and Jo stifled a smile. He sighed.

"Well, it's good to have _you_ back, at least, Jo." He said. She gave him a small smile.

"Thanks." She looked around the rotunda. "It's good to _be _back," she admitted. His PDA beeped and he glanced down.

"Ooh! Gotta boogie! Blueberry cobbler today in the cafeteria. It goes fast," he explained, and Jo gave him an amused half-nod as he turned to go. She looked down at the thick stack of files in her arms and sighed. She'd just known this would be all paperwork, all day.

* * *

Zane rubbed his eyes as he approached the entrance to the shuttle. It felt like it had been eons since he'd last had a solid night of uninterrupted sleep, and it was starting to show. After Fargo had reminded him none-too-gently about the ion pulse damper he was supposed to have installed, he'd found himself cutting corners and swapping it out for the working version from the boson cloud exciter, which after all no-one used anyway. He'd build a new one and replace it - just as soon as he got some sleep. As things stood, he was pretty sure any attempt on his part to build an ion pulse damper would end in catastrophe.

So he was annoyed to arrive at the shuttle, only to find Fargo engrossed in play time. He knew Fargo hadn't come by this job by legitimate means, but, damn it, couldn't he be professional for once and at least _try_ to meet Zane halfway?

"Seriously, Fargo?" Zane said, crouched by the shuttle entrance. Fargo jumped in surprise.

"Zane! What are you doing here? I told you to get to work on that ion pulse damper hours ago." Zane gave him an unimpressed look. "Asked. I _asked_ you to get to work on the ion pulse damper hours ago." Fargo amended hastily. Zane shrugged.

"Came here to let you know it was finished." Fargo hopped out of the chair.

"Really?" He asked. Zane avoided Fargo's eyes.

"Yeah, handmade by yours truly." He lied, eying the cramped interior of the shuttle. "Why would you bother putting a pulse engine in this bucket? It's gotta be sixty years old." Fargo gave him an unconvincing shrug.

"The launch system's still fine." He defended. Zane raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, but you and Henry pulled out navigation, attitude control," god, he hated being so out of the loop, "comm systems..." _Oh._ He smirked as he found the answer to his own questions. "Huh. You're going to use this for an unmanned launch. Are you testing something?" Fargo looked away from him, and Zane could practically see him puffing up his chest with self-importance.

"It's on a need-to-know basis." He blustered. Zane almost scowled, climbing into the shuttle on a whim and closing the door behind him to make his point. He flopped unceremoniously into the chair and almost moaned with pleasure, momentarily forgetting all about Fargo as he shut his eyes...

"Are you seriously taking a _nap_ right now?"

...but it didn't last. Zane cracked an eye, cranky.

"What, you can play Luke Skywalker but I can't take a nap? Which is more conducive to success in the workplace, I ask you?" Zane closed his eye. "And anyways, I thought I _was_ need-to-know these days." It was Fargo's turn to scowl.

"This has nothing to do with you or Jo or time travel, so no, not really." Fargo sniped.

That was when the shuttle started to shake. Zane's brow furrowed and he opened his eyes, sitting up.

"Do you feel that?" Fargo asked him, unnerved. Zane shot him an incredulous look.

"Yeah," he said. Fargo's eyes widened behind his glasses.

"Where did you put the ion pulse damper?" He asked, panic seeping into his voice.

"I told you, I installed it in the engine compartment." Zane replied, annoyed, as he slid off the chair and stood to peer out the window. Really? He was harping on this, now? Wouldn't they be better off figuring out what was happening? Zane was about to tell him just that, but Fargo's next words stopped him short.

"Nobody told you to install it!" Hadn't they? "The ignition switches are on!" Fargo shouted.

Not good.

"Well, how was I supposed to know you'd be in here playing with yourself!" Zane shouted back at him. Fargo froze, looking horrified.

"You completed the launch circuit!" Zane's eyes bulged.

"_What?_" He hissed, the shuttle rattling even harder beneath him and knocking him on his ass. He and Fargo both leapt off the floor and grabbed at the door handle desperately - sealed, _so that's what that snap-hiss sound was_, Zane reflected, and if he'd been working at his usual speed he would have realized that at this point they were damn lucky that door wouldn't open, but right now all he could manage was pure, primal panic.

And as Zane was knocked on his ass for the second time that day, shouting frantically at Fargo, the one coherent thought that passed through his brain – ironically only seconds before he was knocked out – was, _So much for that nap._

* * *

Across town, Claire's day was going better than her father's. After S.A.R.A.H's failed wedding, Grace had come by the house with Henry to pick her up. Now she was happily ensconced in her car seat next to Grace in Cafe Diem, chewing intently on a fist while adults chattered around her.

"Who wants more wedding cake?" Vincent appeared on the opposite side of the table, hands full with plates of wedding cake. There was a chorus of protests, to his dismay.

"Come on, I'll never get rid of all of it. And what am I going to do with four hundred pigs in four hundred blankets?"

"You bring 'em out, is what you do," said Jack, whose breakfast had been somewhat interrupted by the wedding in his living room.

"Bless you, Sheriff," said Vincent wholeheartedly. The other three occupants made faces, but Vincent had noticed the guest on the other end of the table.

"And look who we have here!" He exclaimed, bustling to the other end of the table.

"What? I'm hungry!" Carter said to Allison behind him, in an undertone. Grace smiled at Vincent as he knelt in front of the car carrier.

"If only she could eat the cake..." he muttered to himself, then addressed Claire, whose wide blue eyes were fixed on him, her mouth a little 'o'. In the background, Henry inquired how Andy had taken the news. Vincent smiled at Claire, though he addressed her quite seriously.

"I just want you to know, I think it's a crime, what they insist on feeding you. The day they start you on solids, I have got your back, little lady, I have got your back." He gave her a solemn look, and Claire giggled. Vincent stood up.

"Sheriff, those pigs in a blanket will be right out." Jack, completely absorbed in Allison now, barely registered the words.

"So, this honeymoon period between the two of you is going to be over _soon_, right?" Henry inquired, eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, I'm almost out of gas, I think." Jack said, smile slightly sheepish. Allison laughed, reaching down to tickle Claire's foot.

"Oh, we're not so bad, are we Claire?" She cooed at the little girl, just as Vincent reappeared.

"Pigs in a blanket and - " here Vincent sighed " - plain yellow mustard, as requested." Allison wrinkled up her nose in disgust as Jack speared a pig in a blanket on his fork, dipping it into the mustard and practically inhaling the thing. He'd just reached for a second hot dog when the entire room began to shake. The entire table got up as one - knowing all too well that this did not bode well for the town. Grace paused only to unstrap Claire from the carrier and scoop her up into her arms before all four adults ran for the door.

They stood just outside the door to Cafe Diem, peering into the sky, Grace bouncing an agitated Claire in her arms.

"Did we have a launch scheduled?" Grace asked, though she was sure she already knew the answer.

"No," Allison said, lips pursed.

"So... not good then," Jack concluded, and the four adults watched the shuttle disappear in silence.

Jo met Jack, Henry and Allison in the atrium, dragging Larry behind her. She managed to maintain a neutral, professional expression, but inside she was giddy with adrenaline. This was what she'd been missing since October. She was finally back where she belonged, though she felt a pang of guilt at the thought. Still - was it so wrong to be happy she was back doing something she loved?

"Where's Fargo?" Allison demanded.

"I don't know," Larry admitted, arms spread helplessly. "He's not answering his phone."

"Well, find him, Larry," Allison snapped. Jo studied her. It seemed, at the moment, Allison was back doing something she loved, as well. Allison turned to her. "Talk to me, Jo." She ordered.

"The tracking says it was a decommissioned avada class rocket, it was primarily used for manned flight testing but... it could have a warhead." Henry raked his hands over his face with frustration.

"No, it's an unmanned probe, Fargo and I gutted it to test a new engine." Allison glanced at him warily.

"Nuclear?" She asked, hands on her hips with impatience, and the undertones were obvious.

"No, faster-than-light, built on the principle of the Einstein-Grant bridge." Jo managed to maintain a professional veneer, though just the mention of that device was enough to set her on edge. Carter seemed to feel the same way, which was funny (though she wasn't likely to chuckle about it) as he'd come out that incident relatively unscathed, unlike some. Jo was under no misapprehensions, on that point: the ripples that machine had cast through her life had since smoothed out, but it had very nearly cost her Zane.

"The bridge device? There's a gift that keeps on giving."

"There's a protocol for renegade launch." Jo reminded Allison, trying not to let her lips twitch at Carter's commentary.

"Yes, we need to neutralize the rogue with kinetic countermeasures." Allison glanced at Carter. "We blast it with space missiles," she clarified.

"Thank you."

"We need Fargo's authorization." Jo said, giving Larry a pointed look as he fiddled with his phone.

"He's not answering," Larry responded, wide-eyed. Allison frowned and sighed.

"Okay. Larry, get mission control up and running. Jo, send an evacuation team to Section 5. Henry, we need a hard trajectory for the interceptor missiles." Allison directed them. Jo nodded and turned away as the group dispersed, raising her cell phone to her ear.

"Get me McCreary," she barked, taking the quickest route to mission control, adrenaline pumping with each tap of her heels against the polished floors. Oh, but it was good to be back.

* * *

Elsewhere - or rather, very, very high above her - Zane was distinctly _not _enjoying his workday. For one thing, he'd been knocked out and had woken up with Fargo - something he would not wish on anyone - and for another, well.

"No gravity... that's bad." The irony was depressing – finally, he spent some time unconscious and he _still_ didn't get to , preoccupied with the thought, he missed what Fargo said next. When the artificial gravity came on, he hit the ground hard.

"Fargo, what the hell?" He grunted.

"I told you to grab on to something," Fargo said unrepentantly. "Gravity field's operational," he added as an afterthought. Zane peeled himself off the floor to look out the window, though he probably should have known better. Earth loomed out the window, but it was getting smaller.

"Oh, space is bad," he muttered, a little breathless both from his fall and the dawning realization that for the second time in a year he was brushing so close to death they were all but holding hands.

"We just survived launch in a non-launch ready craft, I think today is our lucky day." Zane shot Fargo an incredulous look; Fargo, who, to his recollection, had never been a hairsbreadth away from dying and therefore lacked a certain appreciation for his own mortality - actually, something about that sounded _wrong_, though Zane couldn't put a finger on _what_ exactly that something might be. Fargo grabbed the headset and put it on, fiddling with the dials.

"Mission control, come in, mission control come..." Fargo trailed off, staring as a bundle of wires came off in his hand.

"You deactivated the comm system, remember," Zane said flatly, staring out the window, _literally _into space. He licked his lips, thinking about the four month old he'd left in Cafe Diem just a few hours ago. _Dying is bad_. He didn't realize he'd said it out loud until Fargo gave him a weird look.

"Life support... life support!" Fargo half-shouted behind him, but he barely heard it. He'd promised Jo he wouldn't die, he thought, his pulse speeding up. He'd _promised._

* * *

Back on Earth, Jo was recalling the incredible satisfaction that comes of leading a team of trained professionals as she oversaw the rescue and evacuation team at the launch chamber in Section 5. The room had been utterly gutted - Jo seriously doubted anyone could have survived, had they been in the chamber at the time of the launch. She was scrolling through the security access information on her tablet when Carter stepped up behind her.

"Wow," Carter breathed when he got a look at the damage. "Anything?"

"It looks like the lab was empty when the rocket went off. Our forensic team hasn't found any bodies."

"Well thank God for small favors." Jo turned to glance at him.

"Did you find Fargo?" She asked.

"Ah - not yet, no." He said, eying the damage. "What about the lab security log?" Jo sighed, frustrated by the utter lack of progress.

"The records were damaged... so far just entries for, ah, Henry, Fargo and Zane." She tilted her head, curious. Zane was working on something with Henry and Fargo? His relationships with the rest of the time-traveling five had improved by leaps and bounds since his coma, but he hadn't mentioned any projects lately. Actually, he'd been very quiet about his return to work.

Jo looked up to find Carter watching her patiently. She bit her lip, embarrassed at having let her thoughts get away with her. Carter just grinned.

"It's good to have you back, Jo," he said sincerely. "And Claire is fine, by the way. Allison and I were having lunch at Cafe Diem with Henry and Grace when the rocket launched. She didn't care for all the excitement, but she's fine." Jo's shoulders relaxed as a weight she hadn't even realized was there lifted off her back.

"Thank you, Carter," she said. Carter gave her a knowing smile.

"Takes a parent to know a parent," was all he said as he stepped further into the rubble, his forehead furrowed. "You know, everybody in _town _felt that launch, there's no way Fargo would miss this." Jo glanced up from her tablet. Carter was right, of course - Fargo was incredibly paranoid about his new position in GD. And where was Zane? She would've expected him to show up and rub Fargo's nose in it the moment the opportunity should arise. Despite his complicity with the rest of the time travelers, Zane's relationship with Fargo had remained faintly adversarial. And - on some level, she had kind of imagined he'd be there to support her today.

This time, Jo and Carter reached the same conclusion nearly simultaneously. When Carter looked at her and she saw her own thought mirrored in his eyes, she - well, she panicked. Her heart jumped into her throat, and Jo ran to mission control like her life depended on it. Those idiots were on the goddamned shuttle. And Allison was about to blow them up.

Carter was right behind her, and when he began to overtake her Jo couldn't help but be grateful. She was gracious enough to accept her limitations for what they were - felt like she could cut herself a little slack for having given _birth_ four months ago, and if Carter could make it there sooner, so much the better. (She didn't stop running, though, having convinced herself that the effort would at least mean something, in the grand scheme of things.)

She didn't think she'd ever be able to look Allison in the eye again if she lost him this way.

* * *

Back in the shuttle, Zane was pretty sure he was asphyxiating, and if it was just in his head, well, it'd be a reality soon enough. Every time he looked at that window again he felt like retching...

"I think I'm going to be sick," he confessed. Fargo didn't even spare him a glance.

"Well, we can't exactly pull over now, can we?" Fargo pointed out, flippant. Zane momentarily fantasized about smothering him to preserve oxygen. In front of him there was a click and a beep, causing Fargo to turn and look at him smugly. It took him a moment to connect the dots, and when he did he perked up.

"Life support is up?" He asked.

"Capsule pressure is steady, oxygen is flowing four liters per second... who's your daddy!" Fargo gloated. Zane leaned forward, feeling better already.

"How much oxygen do we have?" He asked, starting to get curious.

"At least six hours," Fargo informed him triumphantly. Zane gave him an incredulous look.

"Six hours? So basically we're dead by dinner." He pointed out, slumping back against the wall. The suffocating-Fargo thing was sounding better by the minute.

"Mr. Pessimistic. We're going to figure this out. Now is not the time to panic." Zane badly wanted to shake him, to say, _I'm going to be dead before it's even time to pick up my daughter from her first day of babysitting, you insufferable tool,_ but something in the window caught his eye. He leaned forward, eyes fixed on what was unmistakably a trio of missiles coming straight for them. He could guess where they came from. _Fucking Eureka and its fucking bureaucracy._ Feeling sort of satisfied, in a twisted way - _Let's see you do a little panicking, this time_ - he leaned in.

"How about now?" He asked, indicating the missiles ahead. "They're trying to kill us."

"It's standard protocol for any unauthorized launch." Fargo informed him, missing the point rather spectacularly. Zane parroted him, never taking his eyes off the window.

"Oh, it's standard protocol for any unauthorized launch - because protocols have been working _so well _for us so far," He hissed. "Nice last words, you geek," he snarled, feeling more alive than he had five minutes ago. Fargo finally - finally! - lost his cool.

"Yeah? Well how about this: you're an asshat." Fargo sniped.

"Bite me!" Zane snarled, well and truly fed up and not at all thrilled at the prospect of his impending fiery death. They went on like that for a solid three minutes as the missiles approached, right until the point that the missiles blew up only a few yards away. Zane and Fargo stared as they were pelted with debris. _Holy crap._

"What happened?" Fargo asked breathlessly. _Jo. _Jo had happened, Zane was sure of it - his absence wouldn't have escaped her attention for very long, even if she was no longer the hawk-eyed Enforcer he remembered. Hell, she must be freaking out...

"I really am going to puke now," was all Zane could manage, the flash of light replaying itself when he closed his eyes. _Holy crap._ His exhausted mind supplied again. Fargo threw a white paper bag at him (missing him, of course) and Zane grabbed it from the floor before emptying his guts.

"It's still kind of awesome though, right?" Fargo said dreamily, gazing down at Earth. Zane pulled his head out of the white paper bag momentarily.

"It's _space._ It's huge and awful and if we go out there we die a horrible death. But, oh, wait, if we stay on here we _also _die a - horrible - death - " Zane broke off to throw up again. "You're a lunatic." He finished, giving Fargo a dirty look.

"We're in space! I've wanted to do this my whole life. I mean, just look out there, it's beautiful." Zane gave him a derisive look.

"That? That's scenery. You can get that with a nice camera. We _have_ got that with a nice camera. Beautiful is holding your newborn daughter in your arms for the first time. Beautiful is - " _Beautiful is holding Josefina Lupo in your arms, wearing nothing but your engagement ring,_ Zane thought, but had the presence of mind to keep it to himself. _If _he survived this - and Zane had a good enough grasp of probabilities to realize that was unlikely - he was so not ever going to have to confess to Jo that he'd waxed rhapsodic to Fargo over the merits of her naked body.

That was when the proximity alarm started beeping. Fargo gave Zane one last curious look before he turned to look out the window. He didn't like what he saw.

"Oh, that's _bigger_ than I thought it was," Fargo said, sounding intrigued. Zane thought he was missing the larger point, here.

"We're heading straight for it," Zane hissed, watching the space station grow ever-larger through the window. _This is it. I'm going to die before my kid learns to crawl. At least it won't be my fault this time._ He thought back to the sequence of events that had placed him here and winced. Okay, so maybe it was a little bit his fault.

"Do _not_ hyperventilate." Fargo ordered Zane. "You're going to use up all our oxygen," he added, as an afterthought. Zane barely registered the words, having well and truly worked himself into a panic attack. He vaguely noticed Fargo hitting him on the shoulder, making some kind of demand, but what was the point? They were dead already.

The sound of the oxygen _whooshing _out the side of the shuttle got his attention, though. He sat up, pushing the all-consuming despair to one side for a moment.

"You're venting our oxygen? We _need_ oxygen!" He exclaimed, panicking all over again until the urgency in Fargo's tone grabbed his attention.

"Not if we're dead. If we vent oxygen out the right side, it might alter the course!" And - huh. He was right. They'd just barely scraped past the space station. Zane glanced at Fargo, somewhat impressed despite himself. Well, until Fargo opened his mouth, that is.

"I scraped the ISS. Now they're never going to let me be an astronaut." Zane gave Fargo a look -seriously? This is your big concern right now? He thought about Fargo's success in evading the space station, and almost, _almost_ held his tongue, until he remembered that he was several hundred thousands miles away from his family and they were still going to die of oxygen deprivation.

"You've gotta be kidding me," he grumbled, and sat back down. "You realize we've traded a quick death for slow asphyxiation."

"You're welcome," Fargo sniped.

"This is all your fault," Zane complained, knowing even as he spoke that it wasn't true. "If you'd just been doing your so-called job instead playing make-believe in the cockpit, this would never have happened." Fargo whipped around.

"If I had been doing my job? How about if _you_ had been doing your job, instead of parading around town showing off your perfect relationship with the perfect woman? Maybe if you'd been paying more attention to your job, you would've known better than to install that pulse damper in the first place!" Fargo ranged. Zane snorted from his seat on the floor.

"_What_," Fargo hissed. Zane gave him an amused look.

"Jo is not perfect," he stated, staring at the ceiling. Fargo scowled.

"Well, she's darn close," Fargo snapped back, "and you don't deserve her. _Why_ she would ever want to have your kid -" Zane moved fast, making Fargo jump in his seat when his face appeared only inches away.

"Do not," Zane said, in a low, frightening voice, "bring my daughter into this." The _Or I will rip your lungs out with my bare hands and stop worrying so much about oxygen, _was heavily implied. Point made, Zane sat back on the floor. "And you're right, I probably don't deserve her. You want to know what the trick is, though? I figured it out a few months ago." Fargo knew the exact event he was referring to, but couldn't resist pursuing the curious comment.

"Oh, yeah? What's that?" Zane grinned, slightly obnoxiously.

"It's not up to me to decide." He raised his eyebrows at Fargo. "So, whatcha gonna do about it? Seduce her on karaoke night?" Fargo, instead of getting offended like he expected, gave Zane a funny look - spooked, almost.

"How do you know - " Fargo shook his head, trying to focus. "Never mind. It's not really important. We should focus on finding a way to get us back." His eyes lit up and he reached over, fumbling at one of the panels.

"What are you doing?" Zane asked suspiciously.

"This... is the reason I needed the pulse damper. Behold: the world's first wormhole FTL." _That_ was impressive enough that Zane completely neglected to mock Fargo for actually using the word 'behold.'

"No. Way. You cracked man-faster-than-light travel?" Zane's eyes lit up in much the same way Fargo's had a minute ago.

"Cracked is a strong word... this was gonna be its first test run. Come on, help me install it." Zane stared at him.

"Are you_ high_?" He demanded (oh, it would explain so much, except that he didn't believe it for a minute). "Our inertia will annihilate us on impact with the ground." How could he not have considered that? Fargo grinned, the closest he could get to a smirk.

"Unless they fire up the boson cloud exciter to catch us - which Henry will totally think of!" Fargo concluded triumphantly, and Zane went white. The sad thing, Fargo was completely right. If this technology worked - a not insubstantial if - the boson cloud exciter would almost certainly be able to catch them. There was just one, tiny detail, and as Zane's mind - spurred on in no small part by adrenaline - started to work again for the first time in weeks, it was immediately obvious what a colossal problem they had on their hands.

"It won't work," he said, moving away and staring though the window regretfully. Damn, but if he believed in karma...

"Zane?" Fargo asked, confused and a little alarmed. Zane hesitated.

"Your... ion pulse damper..."

"Which you built... right?" Fargo asked, hearing the ominous tone in Zane's voice.

"More like... borrowed. Temporarily! I just... needed to buy some time." Fargo gave him an incredulous look. "I was still gonna build a replacement!" he defended.

"You took the pulse damper from the boson cloud exciter? Do you _know_ what will happen if they turn it on without the damper?" Fargo shouted. Unfortunately, Zane most certainly did.

"Well no one ever uses the stupid thing! I figured, what was a week or so without one? How was I supposed to know our lives were going to depend on it three hours later!" He stared at the window again. "We're really going to die up here, aren't we." He stated, struggling against the tide of nausea and horror racing up to meet him. Fargo pursed his lips.

"We've got to get them a message," he said finally. "If we can warn them they'll come up with something." Zane spared him a disinterested glance.

"We don't have a comm system," he reminded him tonelessly. For one, selfish moment, he wished Jo was the one there with him - at least they'd be going out in glory together. He reminded himself sharply that Claire was going to need her mother. At least this way she had one parent. At least he'd already made a will...

"Zane!" Fargo said sharply, giving him the impression that this was not the first time Fargo had spoken to him. "Snap out of it! I'm going to use code to send them a message." Zane stared at him.

"Using what?" He asked. Fargo waved a dismissive hand.

"Henry has an old communication panel that monitors the systems on the ship, I'm sure he's pulled it out by now." Zane gave him a skeptical look, but really, what was there left to do? He let Fargo carry on, sitting back against the wall, his eyes drifting closed. If he was going to die anyways, he'd might as well take the damn nap he was going to die for.

* * *

Back on the ground, Henry, Grace and a four month old baby stood around the controls to the boson cloud exciter. Grace stood a few feet behind Henry, bouncing Claire slightly where she was pressed against her shoulder. Claire had started fussing about an hour ago, long overdue for a nap. To tell the truth, however, Grace wasn't sure if the close contact was meant to be reassuring Claire or herself. The thought of Zane and Fargo suffocating in space made her sick to her stomach. In her mind she could still see the adoring young father who'd handed over his baby girl just a few hours ago. She could only imagine how Jo was coping, though they'd spoken on the phone not yet an hour ago and Jo had been remarkably calm.

"Not exactly how I imagined spending my day off," Grace sighed. Henry looked up at her, giving her a broad smile.

"You seem to be coping just fine," he teased.

"Now how could I be unhappy holding this sweet little girl?" She said, smiling. "But I have to say, I hope this is all over soon so I can get out of the sun. It's blazing out here."

"Well, you may get your wish sooner than you think – the plasma's coming online," Henry replied, standing up and brushing off his hands.

"Don't worry, sweetheart," she crooned to Claire. "We'll have your daddy home soon, safe and sound." Henry hit the final switch, and the boson cloud accelerator flashed a bright blue. Grace turned to shield her eyes and Claire's eyes as the intensity increased and the whole thing flared before exploding outward. Zane and Fargo had sent their message too late.

* * *

Across town, Jo was having the satisfaction of saving the day, which would have been a lot more satisfying were her fiance not several hundred thousand miles above Earth, and in very real danger of dying up there. If - _when_, she thought firmly, biting down that old panic - when Zane made it home, she was going to have words with him about avoiding putting himself in situations where she needed to save him. What she really wanted to know was, how the hell had he ended up in that shuttle in the first place?

She'd been fortunate in that, when the pulse had hit, she'd already been in the outskirts of GD, investigating an old complaint - the rest of the work at GD didn't just stop during most emergencies, after all. Once Carter had hit the self-destruct on those missiles (and oh, how glad she was that _this_ time there was no missile 'accidentally' lacking the self-destruct feature), there had been nothing left for her to do. And Jo _badly_ needed something to do. So she'd called and checked in with Grace, had refused Grace's thoughtful offer to bring her Claire to keep her company, and had set off on the backlog of work she had to complete.

It had been an hour later that electricity had died all over the town, and Jo had guessed that there would be trouble with their work on the boson cloud exciter. She'd appropriated a few horses from the out-lab she had been visiting and returned to GD to get in touch with Allison and Carter.

Who, conveniently, were right at the entrance to GD. She grinned, pleased with herself.

"Need a lift?" She asked.

"Yeah!" Carter said, obviously delighted. Allison gave the horses a skeptical look.

"Great. Let's go rescue my idiot fiance, shall we? You can tell me what's gone wrong this time on the way."

* * *

They reached the boson cloud exciter in good time, finding Henry and Grace already elbow deep in the mechanics of the exciter. Claire rested in her car seat just behind them, also hard at work, in an attempt to remove her hat from her head. Both Henry and Grace looked up at the sound of hooves, only to see Jo dismount swiftly and with the ease of experience before not-quite-rushing over to the car carrier.

"Horses! Now that is a great idea." Henry said, beaming. Carter, who had obviously ridden before, smiled at Allison.

"You did great," he assured her.

" Yeah, well, my ass hurts." Allison complained as Jo picked Claire up, grabbing Claire's hat just before it fell off her head.

"You did gr- I'll rub it later. You did great!" He repeated.

"Hey Claire-bear," Jo said, bouncing her beaming daughter. "Are you having a fun day with Grace and Henry?" Grace hovered over Jo's shoulder.

"I put on her sunscreen and her hat," she said anxiously. "It's so hot, we didn't want to leave her in the truck of course, but I figured it'd be quick and she'd be there to greet Zane. I wasn't expecting the pulse, but I shielded her eyes and it really shouldn't be harmful to her - "

"Grace," Jo cut her off. "It's fine, really. Better here than with Zane." Jo bit her lip, looking skyward. "Let's just focus on getting him home," she said, preoccupying herself with her daughter. Gradually she became aware that the rest of the group had been talking around them.

"...that's great, if we invert the frequency's cycling, we can probably get a message back to them." Jo's eyes darted hopefully to Henry as he spoke.

"Well, not now that we're on Little House on the Prairie." Carter reminded him.

"I tell you what, there's another panel in an old communications station, just outside of town." Henry told him.

"If it's outside the ionic pulse radius it might still be active." Allison concluded. Carter nodded.

"Okay, so we can use that to talk to Zane and Fargo. What about fixing the, ah, catcher's mitt?" Carter asked, and Jo smiled. It would still be dangerous, but at least now they had the beginnings of a plan.

"Well, we've already started to replace all the fried circuitry," Henry said, gesturing at the BCE. "And I could improvise a one-time use ion damper. But we need power."

"Wait, my lab has an insulated energy generator with copper shielding - it might have survived the pulse." Grace broke in.

"Great, we'll grab the IEG, plug it in the BCE, and everything will be A-OK." Carter said, casting a glance at Jo, who didn't even take the time to roll her eyes as she pressed a kiss to her daughter's head and strapped her back into the car seat by Grace.

"I'm on it," Jo said, turning to Grace. "You mind watching her for another hour?" She asked, a little regretfully - feeling the pull to the little girl in the car seat that she'd been trying to resist all day.

"Of course," Grace replied without hesitation. "But what are you - " Jo cut her off.

"Somebody has to get that generator," Jo reminded her. Grace frowned.

"It's a thousand feet into the ground with no working elevator, how are you even going to get down there?" Grace questioned her.

Jo grinned.

"Mommy's going to have a little adventure," she said, tapping a finger on Claire's tiny nose, before swinging effortlessly onto her horse to ride back toward GD. Allison looked at Carter.

"Did she sound a little… gleeful to you?"

* * *

Zane owed her a massage in the worst way, Jo decided, standing over the launch tunnel. Her ride here – at full gallop, for the second time that day – had been less than comfortable. What she was about to attempt next was probably going to be downright unpleasant. She'd worked hard to get herself back to her accustomed level of fitness, but nature did set certain limits.

Jo cracked a lightstick, tied it to her rope and sent the whole thing hurtling down below to prepare for her descent. She anchored the rope and sat at the edge, pausing to peer into the abyss. She bit her lip and thought of Zane for just a moment, trapped as he was in that tiny shuttle. Jo took a deep breath. If he was going to make it through this, he would need her help.

To her relief, it was as easy as she remembered, in spite of the recent fluctuation in her body weight and the changes in her proportions. She hit the bottom in a few minutes and began making her way through the dimly lit tunnels with the help of her lightstick. The tunnels weren't exactly what you would call well-known to GD employees, which is why she was startled to hear a voice calling her name.

"Andy? What are you doing here?" Jo asked, perplexed. The robot deputy directed one of his charming, yet blank, smiles at her. Jo resisted the urge to shudder. _Robots_.

"Looking for a quiet place to collect my thoughts." Jo raised a skeptical eyebrow, looking around at the noisy industrial tunnel, but didn't bother questioning his choice of quiet places. "After S.A.R.A.H. dumped me, I wanted to be left alone." Well. Jo could sympathize with that, though in her experience you could only keep that peace and quiet for so long in this town - case and point, their chance meeting. "But, I was interrupted by a severe ion pulse," he continued. Jo nodded. "Now, my software dictates that I should verbally acknowledge my physical damage. Ow," he emphasized. Jo rolled her eyes.

"Your head is made out of metal." She pointed out.

"Copper bipolar alloy, actually. Durable AND stylish." Jo sighed, but something clicked in the back of her mind.

"That's how you survived the pulse," she said slowly, though her mind was racing. "Andy, you're a power source!" She said, realizing even as she did that he of course would have no idea why that was important right now. He maintained his cheerily blank expression. She shook her head. "Never mind. Look, I need you to come with me."

* * *

Things were not going so well up above. Zane woke to Fargo shaking him, looking panicked.

"What, what?" He asked, yawning. Fargo was peering at his eyes.

"Do you have a concussion? Oh man, what if the life support system is wrong and we're already running out of air?" Zane squinted at him.

"Wha?" He asked groggily. Fargo threw his hands in the air.

"You were unconscious! I could barely snap you out of it." Zane rolled his eyes.

"Do you have any idea how little sleep I get these days?" Fargo, realizing his companion was not, in fact, currently nearing death, went back to fiddling with the FTL drive. He gestured at the panel by Zane.

"I could use a little help," he muttered. Zane opened the panel, stifling another yawn. Fargo glanced at him.

"Seriously, when we get back down there, you should get that checked out." Zane looked back at the panel in front of him.

"So you really think we have a shot at getting home?" He asked.

"If they can figure out how to fix the BCE." Fargo said, his focus on the wires in front of him. Zane flinched at the reminder.

"Well, that's a big if," he muttered. Another minute passed in silence. "It's not as easy as you think, you know," Zane said suddenly, finding he was dying to get this off his chest. "We look smooth enough in public, but it's still chaos at home. Jo and I are happy together, and we love Claire, but Jesus Christ, I wish she would just _go the fuck to sleep_." Fargo glanced at him reluctantly.

"Yeah?" He asked, turning his head back to the wires in front of him quickly. Zane chuckled ruefully.

"See this?" He asked, leaning forward and gesturing to a whitish stain on his shirt collar.

"...yes?" Fargo replied. Zane raised his eyebrows.

"Baby spit-up. I wish I could say that was the worst substance I've been exposed to in the last four months, but I'd be lying. Do you have any idea how many dirty diapers I change in a day?" He asked. "I swapped out the ion pulse damper because I'm so tired, I was afraid I would actually blow something up if I tried to make it. Trying to think is like wading through molasses. You have any idea how _weird_ that is for me?" Fargo frowned to himself, reluctant to engage, and yet:

"What does Jo say about all this?"

Zane shrugged.

"I haven't said anything." He admitted.

Fargo glanced at him from the corner of his eyes.

"She must be tired, too," he prompted.

Zane frowned.

"Jo may not be perfect, but she does occasionally seem to have superhuman strength. If she's tired, you'd never know it. It's my problem. Didn't seem worth bothering her over." Fargo rolled his eyes and gestured at their surroundings.

"Now that it's landed us here, are you starting to think it maybe just _might_ be worth mentioning?" Before he could answer, the shuttle jolted beneath them and alarms began blaring. They both jumped to the window.

"The oxygen's dropping. We've got a leak," Fargo said. Zane scrambled across the shuttle, where there was an access panel on the floor. He pried it open and eyed the wires momentarily before reaching in and getting to work. Within minutes, he had a handle on things - at least, the best he could, under the circumstances.

"I've slowed down the oxygen leak," he announced, glancing at Fargo. "We're down to fifty-six minutes, how much longer do you need for the FTL?"

"Done!" Fargo replied. "We just need to fire this bad boy up and pray that they got our message and have the BCE ready to catch us." Zane hesitated.

"Hey, um - sorry for being so useless, before. You really held it together. We would never have made it this far without you." Zane said, and meant it, as he thought of the woman and the little girl he knew were waiting on him. Fargo gave him a small smile.

"Not such a useless Director now, am I?" He asked. Zane gave him a smile of acknowledgement.

"Though, seriously, anyone would be better than this timeline's Fargo." Zane pointed out.

"Was he really so terrible, because I always thought - " Zane raised an eyebrow, and Fargo shrugged. "Fair enough. Buy me a milkshake after we land, and all's forgiven." He paused. "Except the launch. That was definitely your fault. _And_ the trouble with the BCE." Zane gave him an amused look.

"Vincent's is free," he reminded him. Fargo gave Zane his best Directorial glare, arms crossed and eyebrows raised.

"Then I guess you're going on a road trip." He said. The effect was somewhat ruined by his confusion as his phone started ringing. For a moment, Zane and Fargo stared at the phone.

"It says unknown caller," Fargo informed him, eyes wide. "What do you think roaming charges are in space?" He fretted. Zane jumped ahead to the important part.

"Answer it!" He hissed, mindful that their survival almost certainly depended on that phone call.

"Hello?" Fargo picked up, then waved his hands at Zane. "It's Carter," he mouthed, ear plastered to the phone.

"Ah, one problem," he said, as Zane watched. "We only have fifty-six minutes - "

"Five," Zane cut in, staring at the clock.

" - fifty-five minutes of oxygen left." Fargo strained to catch Carter's response, but the call cut out. He looked at Zane, eyes wide.

* * *

Carrying herself and Andy all the way back up the launch corridor was not an easy task, even with Andy's limited assistance, and Jo couldn't help but wonder how she'd ever believed she would be able to bring that generator up the shaft. By the time they reached the top, she was starting to wonder if she'd been ready for this at all, though there wasn't much she could do at this point. So she was relieved to see Carter gallop up as she heaved Andy and herself over the edge and onto solid ground. Carter glanced at her.

"You okay?" He asked, but she waved a dismissive hand and he moved on. "Where's the power cell?" he asked as she walked Andy over to him.

"I think I found us another energy source," she told him, still breathing hard, and the expression of sheer relief on Carter's face made her gut twist with concern. Things had clearly not improved in her absence.

"Good, we're running out of time," he replied. She helped Andy over to Carter's horse, making Carter's eyes widen.

"Andy's the - seriously?" He blinked, and Jo shrugged.

"His power cell survived the blast," she said by way of explanation, shoving Andy onto the horse's hindquarters.

"Hey, howdy partner!" Andy said as he waved goodbye to Jo.

"Howdy," Carter says as they turned to leave. Jo watched them disappear into the distance, smiling when she heard a faint "I'm on a horse!" before turning to her own horse. She kept it to a steady walk, knowing that there was nothing she could do back at the BCE and that she had probably overextended her body already. _I hope you know what you're doing, Zane_.

* * *

Zane did not, in fact, particularly know what he was doing. He was staring through the window again. It wasn't facing the Earth anymore. All he could see was the black, stretching out before him.

"I always kind of knew I was going to die young," Fargo gave him an impatient glance out of the corner of his eye.

"You already tried that once, remember? I had to clean up after you," Fargo snarked, remembering vividly all of the times he'd kissed Mansfield's ass to make up for Zane's grand, semi-suicidal gesture to a pregnant Jo.

"Yeah, thanks for that," Zane said absently. Fargo rolled his eyes.

"You're not gonna die, and haven't we had this conversation once already?" He pressed another button on the panel. "We're set. You ready to test the power supply?" Fargo asked.

"As I'll ever be," Zane said, longing for the comfortable bed he'd vacated just that morning - it seemed like several lifetimes ago - and the warm, soft woman he'd been sharing it with.

"Here goes nothing," Fargo said, and reached out to press the button. Zane opened his mouth as the drive powered up -

" - well, that's comforting - " he sniped -

- and then there was a entire symphony of beeping, a little shaking, and a very great deal of oxygen loss.

"_Tell_ me that's not another oxygen leak!" Zane said, peering over Fargo's shoulder. Fargo stared at the panels in front of him.

"It's not another oxygen leak?" He sighed.

"... you're lying." Zane said, narrowing his eyes at him.

"Big time," Fargo replied. "We're screwed." Zane sat back. He was sick of this crap. All he wanted to do was go home, change a few fucking diapers, get some dinner, and then, god willing, sleep through the night. Making up his mind, he turned and opened the FTL panel once more. "We're running out of oxygen, and without the FTL... we really are gonna die." This time, Zane was the one to roll his eyes.

"No, we're not," he dismissed. "Come on, man, you saved our asses twice already. All we have to do is fix your precious FTL drive and we're golden."

"Yeah, well, third time's the charm." Fargo muttered. "Even if you do fix it, we'll never last long enough for them to fix the BCE."

"What happened to Mr. Optimistic?" Zane taunted as he focused on the wire puzzle in front of him.

"He woke up and smelled the oxygen leak!" Fargo snapped. Zane raised an amused eyebrow, continuing to untangle and reconnect the wires before him.

"You can't smell oxygen." He smiled to himself as Fargo exploded with annoyance in response.

"Shut _up_! You know what I mean!" Fargo shouted, slamming his fists on his lap. "You'll never fix the FTL in time."

"Bite me, Fargo," Zane said lazily as he connected the last wire and shut the panel, which lit up instantly.

"You got it running." Fargo said, staring at him.

"Well, we have power." He said, glancing back at Fargo, who leaned forward in interest. "GD didn't just hire me for my pretty face, you know."

"Now we just... need to recalculate the energy vectors, and the destination coordinates." Fargo enthused. Zane snorted.

"Yeah, and pray that they have the BCE ready in time to catch us." Zane pointed out. Fargo ignored him.

"Let's do this," he said, typing frantically into the keyboard. "…okay, that should do it. Coordinates are set. I think we're ready." Zane looked nonplussed. He took a deep breath.

"Okay, well... on your order, Captain," he said, giving Fargo a lopsided grin. Fargo glanced at his watch and leaned forward.

"Engage," he said, and pressed the button.

* * *

At the landing site... or crash site, as the case might be, most of the group had regathered. Carter was off to the side, bouncing Claire ineffectively, as she'd been fussing very nearly nonstop since her mother had left again. Grace was occupied, helping Henry work with Deputy Andy. They flipped the switch and, instinctively, Carter shielded Claire's face carefully with his jacket as he squinted up at the blue pentagon of light.

"Huh," Carter said, opening his eyes.

"What?" Allison asked, without looking at him.

"Ah, I was just expecting something a little..." The blue pentagon of light exploded upward, loudly, and Carter had to shout to be heard. "Bigger!" Between the lights and the loud noises, Claire was wailing and adding to the racket -

- and then suddenly it was just the screaming baby, and a lightly steaming spaceship. The other three ran forward to greet their erstwhile companions, while Carter held back, trying in vain to comfort the screaming baby, who clearly had Had Enough.

Inside the rocket – when Zane finished screaming (when Fargo made him stop screaming) – he pulled himself off the floor into a crouch and was immediately confronted by a forest view through the small window. The sheer _relief_ at the sight was nearly crippling, and even as Fargo opened the hatch, Zane found himself slumping back onto the floor. He was still processing, waiting as Fargo clambered out, when he heard an incredibly familiar sound. Zane grinned and pried himself off the floor just to pop his head out from the shuttle. "I believe you have something of mine!" He shouted, before hopping over the side of the shuttle. Carter met him halfway.

"Hey there, bright eyes," he said, lifting his daughter out of Carter's arms with a grunt. "Oof. Did you gain a whole pound today? What on Earth has Auntie Grace been feeding you?" He inquired, tweaking her nose and letting her grab his pinky. She, of course, jerked it to her mouth but he tugged it right back. "Ohhh, I think not. Who knows what microbes were hanging around in that shuttle." He looked up just in time to see Jo dismount from her horse and walk toward him.

"Zane," she murmured, her eyes shining in spite of her reserved approach. She smiled at the sight of their daughter before looking back at him. When she did, he leaned in and kissed her, softly, freeing one hand to brush it over the smooth skin of her cheek.

"I have been missing that all day," he told her, and she turned her head to brush a kiss over the sensitive skin of his inner wrist before looking up at him.

"Me too," she murmured, and wrapped an arm around him.

* * *

Pigs in a blanket, Zane found, were vastly improved by a near-death experience. Next to him, Jo was all but inhaling an omelette and a protein shake disguised as a milkshake. She had Claire balanced carefully on her lap, Claire's car carrier abandoned by their table. Zane smiled at Jo's obvious relief in holding her daughter once more. His eyebrows lifted with curiosity as he caught sight of Andy entering the cafe, looking dejected.

"Andy, man," he said, raising his voice to garner the attention of the robot deputy. "How're you holding up?" The AI trotted over to their table.

"I believe I am coping adequately, Mr. Donovan." Andy told him. "Today I was able to have some time alone with my thoughts, and I found it to be a highly therapeutic experience. But now I find myself seeking distractions. That is why I am here." Zane cocked his head with sudden inspiration.

"Say, Andy, you must not have much in the way of distractions at night." He stated.

"No sir, I do not." Zane glanced at Jo, who was eying him.

"How would you like one?" The robot Deputy frowned.

"I am afraid I do not take your meaning, Mr. Donovan." He stated.

"We could use someone around who doesn't need to sleep to help with midnight feedings." Zane said. Jo stared at him, then at Andy.

"Zane," she hissed.

"You could stay in Claire's room. She doesn't need the extra space." Zane continued.

"Zane!" Jo repeated.

"Thank you Mr. Donovan, I will keep your kind offer in mind!" Andy said enthusiastically, before nodding at both of them and joining Carter up at the counter.

"Zane, have you lost your mind?" Jo demanded under her breath. He turned to look at her, his blue eyes serious.

"Jo, almost all of the disasters that happened today could have been avoided if I'd just had more sleep. I can't risk that in a town like this. You need sleep too. And Andy needs something to occupy himself with. It's a win-win for everyone involved," he said. Jo frowned, hearing the truth in his words.

"I'm not sure I like this," she said. Zane shrugged. "It's this or one of us has to stop working, Jo. We have high-risk jobs. We need to be on top of our game." His gaze drifted to Claire. Jo gave him a considering look, then reached out to take his hand in her own, rubbing her thumb over the back of his hand.

"Okay," she agreed.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Yeah." She said.

He flashed her a sudden, brilliant smile.

"In that case," he said, eyes dancing with mischief, "I think a little celebration of life is in order, don't you?" Jo gave him a sly look, even as she attempted to pry a spoon out of Claire's tiny hand.

"Ask me again once we have this little monster trapped in a crib, and we'll see."

* * *

Fervent thanks to the brilliant Wyndes, who helped make this chapter a reality.

Disclaimer: As noted above, substantial portions of text and concept are borrowed lovingly from Eureka, Season 4.5 Episode 1 ("Liftoff"). In fact, pretty much everything in this chapter is from Eureka (Big surprise, right?) I have decided to amuse myself with the chapter titles. Today's title is "Space Oddity," from the David Bowie song, and I probably shouldn't find that as funny and clever as I do, but c'mon, it was _too good_.

A/N: I DON'T EVEN KNOW, GUYS. I've been looking at this finished chapter for like four days now? And I still don't know if this was such a great idea. It's just that in yoga practice today, our teacher said to let something go. So I decided I would let this go, because I did promise you a sequel, and, well, this is the only one I've got. I'm sort of hoping these will deviate increasingly? God only knows. _Equanimity _is the watchword.

I will not know if this is working unless you say something, though, so...


	2. Hard to Concentrate

Catching Fire

Jo slammed the door to her Subaru with more force than was strictly necessary.

_This is not the nanny's fault_, she reminded herself for what felt like the hundredth time. _A stomach bug was probably not in her plans for the week, either._ She just hoped Claire wasn't next in line.

Jo shifted Claire in her arms as S.A.R.A.H.'s motion sensors picked up on her movement and the first bunker door swung open. She'd called Grace in a panic that morning, at an hour which had made Zane groan in complaint, but the older woman had been forced to demur in favor of her own work. Grace had been the one to remind her that Carter was taking care of Jenna while Allison went to her medical conference.

He'd had been willing enough over the phone, but as Jo picked her way down the steps, she hesitated. Could Carter really handle two babies and a teenager?

The second door to the bunker swung open before she could reconsider.

"Hey, Jo. I was starting to think you might not come," Carter teased from where he stood with Allison and Jenna. Jo saw Kevin's head pop over the edge of the couch.

"Great, more babies," she heard him grumble, making her stifle a smile. Jo came to a stop in front of Carter and Jenna.

"Hey there, Claire," Allison cooed. Claire stared at her with wide eyes. "Are you ready for a play-day with Jenna?" She looked at Carter.

"Are you sure you can handle both of them?" Allison asked. Jo raised her eyebrows at Carter, waiting for his response.

"Of course I can!" Carter insisted, sounding mildly affronted. Allison pursed her lips.

"Okay, well, everything you need is in this bag – " She gestured to the bag she'd set down on the stairs. " Carter held up a hand, cutting her off before she could get any further.

"Hey, I survived a teenage daughter. And, apart from running away a few dozen times and a brief stint in jail, she turned out okay." Jo snorted. Allison did not look especially reassured, but stepped in to give Carter a quick goodbye kiss before turning to Jenna and lightly stroking her daughter's cheek.

"Bye, baby," she said softly. "Mama will be back tomorrow." S.A.R.A.H. opened the door and Allison disappeared onto the steps out of the bunker. Jo turned back to Carter and arched an eyebrow.

"Precious cargo for you, Carter," she remarked, gesturing for him to take Claire. He looked down at the toddler in his arms then at the four-month old, belatedly identifying a problem. There was a long pause.

"I'm going to regret this, aren't I," he recognized, placing Jenna in the playpen he'd kept on hand since he began dating Allison. Jo frowned as she handed Claire to him.

"I'm already regretting this," Kevin muttered.

"I brought the baby backpack," Jo told him. "And her car seat." She slid the enormous bag to the floor, where it made a loud _thump._ Carter stared at it. "And a few other things."

"You're enjoying this," he accused. Jo rolled her eyes.

"Oh, absolutely," she mocked him, but her gaze softened when she looked down at her daughter. She leaned over and brushed a gentle hand over Claire's forehead. Claire gave her mother a wide, gummy grin and kicked her legs, making Carter tighten his grip.

"I'll see you later, little girl," she said. "Be..." she paused and gave Carter a wicked grin. "Be _good_ for Carter, okay?"

"Very funny, Jo."

She shrugged at Carter.

"Thanks for taking her," she said, tearing herself away from Claire with difficulty. S.A.R.A.H.'s door swung open and hissed shut behind her, leaving Jo at the base of the bunker stairs. She took a deep, calming breath in, and released it slowly.

_You trust Carter,_ she reminded herself. _He can handle this._ With just one last glance at the inner door of the bunker, Jo headed back to her car.

* * *

Jo stopped at Café Diem on her way home, picking up her customary breakfast smoothie and muffin with a coffee and pastry for Zane. When she walked into the house they now shared, she was bemused to find it dead silent, something which had become rare since Claire was born. She set the bag from Café Diem on the island in the kitchen and slipped into their bedroom, where she found Zane fully dressed but prone on the bed.

"Five more minutes," he said, voice muffled by his pillow.

"Zane, I have to be at GD in less than a half hour." Jo reminded him.

"I'll take my bike," was his sleepy rejoinder. Jo frowned.

"You're the one who said you wanted to be on time today," she pointed out. Zane flopped over onto his back and gave her a warm, sleepy smile, his hair ruffled by the pillow.

"You could join me," he said, eyes glinting. His smile hit Jo with a wave of mingled fondness and desire, and she licked her lips. Between the baby in the house and the unnerving presence of the baby's AI babysitter, she and Zane had been hard pressed to find a moment for themselves.

"We don't have time." She sighed. Zane glanced at the clock and frowned.

"I suppose not," he conceded, sitting up and swinging his legs off the edge of the bed. "Can I at least get a good-morning kiss?" He stood up, and Jo rolled her eyes before pressing a light kiss to his lips. Zane snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her closer, deepening the kiss. A minute passed before Jo pulled back.

"Breakfast is in the kitchen," she told him, her tone meaningful. Zane frowned before pressing a warm kiss in the crook of her neck.

"Not hungry," he said, voice plaintive, but stepped away when she began to pull him in the direction of the bedroom door. "Fine, fine," he grumbled. He followed Jo through the living room and into the kitchen, snagging his coffee and pastry before sitting down at the table in the sun-drenched room off the kitchen. They ate in relative silence, knees brushing beneath the table, passing napkins and the paper with the ease of familiarity. When they finished, Jo passed Zane her plate and vanished downstairs to retrieve her weapon and holster from her armory while Zane rinsed the dishes and placed them in the dishwasher.

Jo reappeared, looking sleek and professional, and Zane leaned against the island in the kitchen, his eyes skimming her body.

"Ready to go?" she asked. He grinned.

"Any time, Josefina."

* * *

Jo insisted on driving, as always ("it's _my_ car, Zane,"), and Zane only put up the pretense of a fight before slipping in the passenger seat and beginning to fiddle with Jo's iPod. Jo cast him a glance as she pulled out of the driveway and he settled on a song.

"Chili Peppers?" she inquired.

"Their new single is coming out any day now," he informed her, his fingers tapping in time with the beat. Jo's eyes slid to his fingers. She slipped one hand off the steering wheel just long enough to cover his hand with her own and give it a brief squeeze. Zane flashed her a smile, and together they sped towards GD.

* * *

Jo reached the atrium just in time to catch Fargo marching away with a petite redhead in tow, and found herself racing to catch up with him. He looked tense, which made Jo groan inwardly. She'd woken up much too early for tense.

"Fargo!" she called, and strode after him.

"Do try and keep up!" he told the redhead, and Jo narrowed her eyes, following him into the hallway and onto the lift.

"Ah, Jo. You're late," he informed her loftily. Jo raised an eyebrow.

"Try raising a four month old sometime, Fargo, and then we'll talk." The redhead jumped into the conversation, startling Jo.

"Oh, do you have children? That's nice. I don't have any children, well, of course, I'm not married or anything – " Fargo's head jerked slightly toward them when she spoke.

"Neither am I," Jo said, resisting the urge to touch the sparkling ring that now rested on her finger.

"Oh," said the redhead, mercifully at a loss for words.

"I didn't catch your name." Jo reminded her.

"This is Dr. Holly Marten. Senator Wen sent her," Fargo snapped. Dr. Marten opened her mouth to speak, just as the elevator door opened.

"Well – " she began, but Fargo cut her off.

"If you'll follow me this way," he said, back to full steam ahead now that they were out of the elevator. He stopped in front of the door to the faster-than-light lab and typed the access code quickly into the panel.

"After you," he said curtly. Dr. Marten descended on the lab like a kid who'd just seen a piñata, but Jo held back.

"Fargo," she demanded, "what is going on with you – " but Fargo sailed past her and into the lab to activate the control panel for the FTL drive. Jo sighed and followed him in, crossing her arms over her chest and ignoring the slight discomfort of the position. She watched as the FTL drive slid out of its secure storage space. She had mixed feelings about the thing – on the one hand, it had saved Zane's life. On the other hand, had it not been built, Zane's life would never have been in danger in the first place, and it already seemed to be stirring up trouble. Zane had suggested any number of possible uses to her after his experience in space, and already it sounded like the kind of scientific discovery that was going to go political, fast. Jo suspected Senator Wen's involvement was only the beginning.

"Whoa," said Dr. Marten, stepping around the control panel. "This… is too cool. I'd love to… take it apart and see how it works." Jo watched as Fargo followed her into the room. Something was definitely off about him. "When I was a kid, this one time, I reversed the suction on the vacuum cleaner – "

"Fascinating," Fargo cut her off. "You know, if you want I could give you a demonstration." Jo frowned.

"I thought it was nonoperational?" Dr. Marten said, looking up at Fargo. She was practically quivering with excitement at the thought of a demonstration. Jo was reminded of a puppy hoping to go for a walk.

"I'm the head of GD, I can do whatever I want," Fargo said, dismissing her concern, and began tapping into the control panel while Dr. Marten peered at the drive. Jo was startled when the drive lit up and a there was a flash of blue light over Dr. Marten.

"What's happening?" she asked Fargo, a bad feeling forming in the pit of her stomach. Dr. Marten turned to look at them, and disappeared. Jo's eyes widened.

"What'd you do?" she demanded, turning to look at Fargo. What the hell was going on with him?

"Got rid of her," he informed her. "It's for the best." Jo reared her head back, giving him an incredulous look. "So! Who wants breakfast?" he asked.

"I already ate," she said, too stunned for anything else. She shook her head, trying to recover from her shock, and pulled out her phone.

"Zane? I think we're going to need you down in the FTL lab."

* * *

Zane was having trouble keeping the laughter out of his voice.

"You FTL'd Holly Marten?" he asked Fargo. "The DoD's gonna flip." Jo glared at him, catching his tone of amusement, and he grinned back at her.

"She wanted to take it apart, she would've realized the design was based on the Einstein Bridge, and then…" Fargo made a dramatic little noise. "Secret's out." He shrugged. Jo scowled at him.

"You couldn't have thought of that _before_ you and Henry decided to build the FTL drive? Or perhaps consulted the rest of us before _zapping _the investigator?" she hissed. "What is _wrong _with you?"

"I feel fine," Fargo scoffed at her.

"You feel fi – he feels fine!" Jo repeated to Zane, throwing her hands up in the air. "Fargo. _Where is Holly?"_ she asked, about ready to strangle Fargo.

"She could be anywhere," Zane explained, giving her a wary look. "Or… nowhere," he admitted, looking at Fargo, who seemed pleased with himself.

"So! Waffles?" Fargo suggested, sounding as if he were over the conversation. Jo clenched her jaw, and Zane stepped between them.

"Maybe you should… go," he told Fargo. Jo held a hand up.

"Oh, no, no, no," she said, stopping both men short. "He is going straight to a holding cell, and if he's very lucky we'll get someone down from the infirmary to check out his particular brand of _crazy._" She grabbed Fargo's upper arm and began pulling him to the door. "You, come with me." She looked back at Zane. "And you – see if you can find some way to deal with the FTL drive and Dr. Marten. We can't afford for her to go sniffing around the Einstein Bridge." Jo's mouth went dry at the thought.

"I've got it covered, Jo-Jo," Zane assured her, his eyes never leaving hers. Jo gave him a quick nod and a smile.

"I'll call Carter and have him look for Dr. Marten," she told him. "I hope Andy is in the mood to do some babysitting."

* * *

Across town, Jack was finding it both easier and harder to handle two babies at once than he expected. On the one hand, Claire was fast asleep. On the other hand, Claire was fast asleep in the baby backpack affixed to his chest, steadily drooling a small wet spot over his heart. Meanwhile, he had Jenna carefully balanced on his knees, spooning the occasional mouthful of baby food into her mouth. Jenna, for her part, was much more interested in Claire, and he found himself regularly fending off Jenna's curious hand from encroaching upon Claire's sleeping face. The teenager under his supervision was none too pleased.

"This sucks, man," Kevin complained.

"Well, you said you wanted to hang out like we used to, right?" Jack reminded him, distracted as he tried to sneak another spoonful into Jenna's mouth.

"Yeah, like when you used to take me out on investigations and stuff." That caught Jack's attention.

"I never took you out on – on, ah…" he trailed off at Kevin's expression. Or maybe he had. What on Earth had the other version of him been thinking, taking Allison's son on investigations with him? He would never have done that with Zoe. "Ah, except when I did…" he backtracked lamely. "When… we did."

"Ever since you and Mom got together, we don't have any fun." Oh, he could tell this was going nowhere good. "You're all… domesticated." Jack was impressed by the amount of teenage disdain Kevin managed to load into the word.

"I'm not – " Jenna finally managed to land a hand firmly on Claire's face, and the baby in the backpack squirmed, her face crumpling up. _Please, God, do not cry. _Claire shifted, and the wrinkles of discontent evened out. " – domesticated," he finished, even as he felt a wave of relief that the baby had gone back to sleep. So maybe he was a little domesticated. "Zane and Jo needed a little help, and since your Mom was going away…" he trailed off as he reached for another spoonful of Jenna's food.

"Yeah, well, if _you're_ domesticated then _Zane's_ been – " The sound of Jack's phone ringing cut Kevin off. Jack shifted, trying to maneuver between the two babies and grab his phone.

"Hey, Jo, Claire's just gone to sleep – " Jack began.

"I wouldn't count on that lasting," Jo said from the other end of the line. "But that's not why I called. Fargo zapped someone with the FTL drive. Dr. Holly Marten."

"Fargo _what_?" Jack asked, startled. Behind him he noticed Kevin jumping up from the café chair.

"Do we have a case?" Kevin demanded. Jack waved a quelling hand at the teenager. Kevin, unsurprisingly based on Jack's experience with teenagers, ignored him. "I could help you!" he protested.

"I'm putting him in a holding cell and calling someone up from the infirmary to look him over," Jo informed him. "Zane's looking into the reason he did it. But we need to find Dr. Marten."

"Okay. Keep me posted," he said before hanging up and turning to Kevin. "Hypothetically… what if there was an accident… with the FTL. And, ah, someone got… sent, somewhere," Jack asked, cringing.

"And someone got zapped?" Kevin asked, excited.

"_Hypo_thetically," Jack repeated, realizing it was hopeless. Kevin's eyes lit up.

"Well, they might be at the BCE site," he suggested. "You know, the boson cloud exciter?" Kevin reminded him.

"Yeah, the, ah, catcher's mitt," Jack said. "I remember."

"Well, if the coordinates for the BCE were the last ones in the drive, the FTL might have sent them there." Kevin looked thrilled. "We should go!" He grabbed his backpack, heading for the door.

"No, no, no – hey!" Jack gestured back at the chairs. "_No,_"he repeated. "But it's a good idea, and I will let Jo know."

"Sheriff? Your order is ready." Vincent appeared behind him. Jack frowned at the martini on the tray.

"What's the occasion?" he asked, bemused.

"Oh, big party later," Vincent explained. Jack cocked his head.

"Getting started a bit early, don't you think?" he suggested. Vincent gave him a serious look.

"Oh, it's never too early – to par-tay." Vincent sipped the martini himself. "That's good," he informed Jack in a stage whisper, and vanished in the opposite direction. Jack shook his head, looking down at the two babies occupying his lap.

"I'd better watch your bottles today, huh?" he teased, then glanced back toward Kevin, the word _domesticated _floating through his mind. That was when he realized two things in rapid succession: first, that the teenager was gone, and second, that his car keys had gone with him.

"Shit," Jack swore, then winced. "Sorry, sorry," he muttered at the babies, balancing Jenna on his hip and standing rapidly before racing for the café door.

"Kevin!" He arrived just in time to shout as he watched his Jeep pull away. "Kevin!" Claire woke up to his shouts and the screech of his tires as Kevin pulled out, quickly beginning to wail, and Jenna began squirming in a bid to escape the noise.

"Shit," Jack muttered again. This time he didn't bother to apologize. He began heading for the Sheriff's office, where he knew Andy should be, and struggled to pull out his phone with his free hand.

"Jo?" he said, as soon as she picked up the phone. "I think I may know where Dr. Marten is, but I'm going to need you to pick me up at the Sheriff's office."

* * *

Jo arrived at the Sheriff's office in under twenty minutes, sweeping in at full throttle, though the sight of her daughter stopped her short.

"Hello, Chief Lupo," Andy greeted her cheerfully. "I've just changed her." Jo took her daughter from him, wrinkling her nose.

"Yeah, I can still smell the diaper," she said. "Hey there, Claire-bear. You and I weren't supposed to see each other so soon," she teased Claire, brushing her cheek with a finger and making her little girl beam at her. Behind them, Carter appeared from the bathroom with Jenna.

"You certainly did a number on that diaper," he was informing her. Jenna's head was resting on Carter's shoulder, thumb in her mouth. He caught sight of Jo.

"I'm so glad you're here," he told her. "We should get moving right away," he said, handing Jenna to Andy. Jo placed Claire in her car seat, stroking her downy hair before turning to Carter.

"What's the hurry?" she asked, then noticed an absence from the former party of four. "And where's Kevin?" Carter frowned.

"That's part of the problem," he admitted. "I'll tell you on the way there," he said, gesturing to the office door. Jo raised her eyebrows, but followed him out of the office and to her car, where he reflexively headed for the driver's seat.

"Not likely, Carter," she snorted, and he glanced at the car.

"Oh! Right," he said, looking sheepish, and rounded the front of the car to get to the passenger seat as Jo slipped into the driver's seat and switched on the ignition.

"So – Kevin?" she asked, glancing at him as she pulled onto Main Street. Carter looked tired, though she had no doubt Claire and Jenna had contributed to that state.

"Apparently old timeline me used to take him on ride-alongs," Carter explained. Jo raised her eyebrows.

"That seems like an odd way to win Allison's affections," she remarked, turning left as she navigated the roads that led to the access road for the boson cloud exciter.

"Yeah," Carter sighed. "I guess we'll never know, but based on some of the comments he's made, I have to wonder if the other me was interested in Allison at all. I mean, Tess was still here." Jo _hmm_ed thoughtfully.

"So how'd he end up all the way out here, with your Jeep?" Jo asked as she pulled onto the access road. Carter groaned.

"He grabbed my keys when I wasn't looking, and the next thing I know my Jeep is skidding down Main Street." Jo parked and pulled the keys out of the ignition before stepping out of the car and turning to look back at Carter.

"And he just took off?" Jo asked. Carter shrugged, and she shook her head. "Teenage years are looking better and better," she muttered, and began walking toward the BCE. "Dr. Marten!" She shouted.

"Kevin!" Carter added. "And what about Fargo?" he asked Jo, voice lowered. "He, what, just disappeared her?" Jo pursed her lips.

"Yeah, he, ah – claims he was protecting us," she explained with raised eyebrows. "I don't know, this Holly chick has him acting… crazy. Well… crazier," Jo amended.

"Well, there's her job – I mean, you don't act _rational _when you're freaked out," Carter pointed out. Jo shook her head.

"That's the thing," she said. "He was totally calm. You would think he'd just sent her out on a – a pizza run, or something." Carter frowned. He looked like he was about to respond when a voice stopped him short.

"Jack! Jack!" Jo whipped her head around to see Kevin and Holly Marten emerging from the bushes. "I found her!"

"Dr. Marten," she said, relieved, as Carter rushed towards Kevin.

"Global Dynamics is not that way!" Dr. Marten said cheerfully. Ahead of her, Jo could see Carter raise an eyebrow.

"Are you okay?" Jo asked, brushing past her comment entirely.

"Are you kidding?" Dr. Marten asked, and Jo's blood froze. "That. Was. Amazing! First direct FTL flight of a vehicleless lifeform?" Jo relaxed, though Dr. Marten's response was only reinforcing her opinion of her as possibly a crazy person. Beside her, Kevin looked pleased with himself. "I can't wait to tell everyone I know – not that I know a lot of people – " Carter gave Jo a disbelieving look. " – I'll have to write a paper. Maybe I'll call it 'Beam Me Up'… or something less dated and more reverent." Jo tried not to laugh as Dr. Marten fixed her attention on Carter. "Oh, hi, I'm Holly," she introduced herself. Carter blinked, bemused, and smiled at her.

"Jack," he responded, reaching out to shake her hand. She turned to Jo.

"Can I go again?" Jo's eyebrows shot up.

"Well, we can talk about that at, ah, GD, when we get you checked out," Jo assured her, shooting Carter a look.

"Okay! Bye," Dr. Marten said to Kevin, who waved.

"Have fun," Carter mouthed at Jo. She gave him a superior look.

"Back atcha," she responded, jerking her head in Kevin's direction. Carter scowled at her before turning his attention to Kevin.

"Okay, look, I know you're probably mad," Jo heard behind her as she led Dr. Marten back to her car, and she smirked to herself.

"D'oh, you think?" she heard Carter exclaim, just before she shut the car door behind her. She shook her head, still smiling, before turning to Dr. Marten.

"I'm going to make a call and let them know I've found you, and then we can go get you checked out," Jo told her.

"Okay!" Dr. Marten agreed, and Jo blinked, surprised once more by the other woman's guilelessness, and liking her all the more for it, in spite of herself. It was a refreshing change of pace from the scientists she dealt with daily at GD. Jo made a quick three-point turn and headed for the entrance to the access road, pulling out her phone as they went.

"Zane," she said, her relief evident in her voice. "Carter and Kevin found Dr. Marten out by the BCE. We should be back at GD in about fifteen minutes."

"Carter?" Zane asked, "What about Claire and Jenna?"

"With Andy at the Sheriff's office," Jo told him. She could almost _hear_ his grin over the phone.

"Under arrest already, eh? Clearly she's got her Daddy's prowess for trouble making." Jo rolled her eyes.

"Well, there's no question about that," she muttered, thinking about the string of sleepless nights they'd endured before Andy had started spending nights at their house.

"Anyways, I've got Fargo locked tight in your office," he informed her.

"I'll meet you back at the FTL lab once I get to GD." Jo replied before hanging up. She caught Dr. Marten watching her from the corner of her eye.

"What?" Jo asked, her tone a little shorter than she'd intended.

"Oh! Nothing," Dr. Marten said hastily, and the rest of the drive passed in silence.

* * *

Dr. Marten insisted on returning to the FTL lab before her trip to the infirmary. Jo, wanting to avoid an already bad situation turning into a full-on bureaucratic incident, humored her. They were met by Zane, who quirked an eyebrow as Dr. Marten brushed past him to reach the FTL drive. Jo shrugged at him as Dr. Marten paced around the drive.

"I have to call the Senator and let her know what's going on. This – is gonna blow her mind." Jo and Zane exchanged a glance. "Have you seen Dr. Fargo? I have to thank him."

"For…?" Jo asked, baffled. Zane cut in.

"For – the, ah, the demonstration," he filled in, darting a pointed look at Jo as Dr. Marten approached him.

"To be honest, I don't do a lot of work in the field," she explained.

"Really," Zane said, deadpan. Fortunately, his amusement was lost on Dr. Marten.

"So, this has been a real education," Dr. Marten continued. "I did my thesis on Einstein's field equations, and – are you familiar with the Gauss-Binet Theory, which posits that exotic matter need not be present to superluminally traverse two points in space time?" She asked, expression hopeful. Zane's eyes were calculating as he processed her words.

"Must've been sick that day," Jo said, bemused. Dr. Marten looked disappointed. "Speaking of which, we should probably get you checked out by the docs – it's standard procedure for superluminous travel," Jo added, eager to hand Dr. Marten over to someone else for a while.

"Right. Of course," Dr. Marten conceded, grabbing the bag she'd left in the lab before she'd been zapped by Fargo.

"Let me show you to the – " Jo began, but Dr. Marten cut her off.

" – infirmary? I know the way. I memorized the blueprints on the plane," she chirped.

"Course you did," Jo muttered to herself, throwing up her hands in defeat as the doors slid closed behind Dr. Marten.

"At least she's low maintenance," Zane pointed out. Jo gave him a skeptical look and he shrugged. His eyes turned serious.

"There might be a way to disguise the origins of the FTL," Zane told her. "Keep her from figuring out that it's a spin-off of the Bridge Device." Jo perked up.

"Great," she said. "Do it." He nodded and stepped closer to her, until Jo could almost feel the heat radiating off him. She tilted her head up and smiled.

"Hey, there," she said, eyes sparkling.

"Hey, yourself," Zane responded. "You know, we're all alone in this big, empty lab." He pointed out as he pulled her close. Jo's arms slid up around his neck.

"Why, so we are," she said, pretending to be surprised by the news. He grinned, leaning in to press his lips to hers.

* * *

Jack propelled a sulky Kevin through the front door and into his office, where he found his deputy and his other, less wayward charges for the day.

"Oh, there's Sheriff Carter and your big brother Kevin," Andy told Jenna in his perpetually cheery tones. "He just perpetrated a code 503 – that's grand theft auto, yes it is," Andy informed her.

"Sit," Jack said, leading Kevin to the couch before addressing Andy. "Ah, sorry to stick you with babysitting duty," he apologized.

"No problem. It was… kind of nice, actually. Jenna and I were just getting to know each other while Claire took a nap. Did you find Ms. Marten?" Andy asked.

"Ah – yeah, we did. Well – _he_ did," Jack said, gesturing at Kevin. "Don't know how, or _why,_ but he did." Jack eyed Kevin, frustrated.

"I don't know," Kevin said, equally annoyed. "I had to. I knew where she was, and I wanted to help." He shrugged.

"Well, if you're still in the mood, I could use some help," Andy said, smiling. Jenna stared at her brother.

"Really?" Kevin's eyes lit up.

"Yeah," Andy assured him.

"What's going on? Is there, like, a nanobot outbreak? Did a quantum window open up somewhere?" Kevin enthused.

"Nope," Andy said, picking up Jenna and handing her to Kevin before crossing the room. "You can hold Jenna while I answer the phone." Jack barely glanced up.

"It's not ringing," he pointed out.

"I set the ring to an infrasonic frequency," Andy explained. "With Claire napping, it's been kind of crazy," Andy picked up the phone. "Sheriff's office, hold please," he said, turning back to look at Jack.

"I could use another hand, though," he suggested.

"I'll order one – today, you're putting out the fires," Jack said, before vanishing into the bathroom. Andy shrugged and took his caller off hold.

"Deputy Andy, how may I be of assistance?" he inquired, and paused to listen to his caller. Then he frowned – or his expression went as close to a frown as it ever managed. "This sounds like an issue for GD's Chief of Security," he responded. "This is the Sheriff's department," he pointed out unnecessarily. Andy cocked his head to the side as he listened to the response. "That sounds uncharacteristic," he opined. "Someone will be there soon." Andy hung up and Kevin jumped to his feet, jostling Jenna and making her cry, startled.

"What is it? I can help!" Andy turned to Kevin.

"I'm afraid this is above your age bracket," he explained, crossing the room to take Jenna from Kevin and bouncing her soothingly. Unfortunately, Jenna's crying had also served to jolt Claire into wakefulness, and she had followed suit. Jack stepped out of the bathroom.

"What on Earth happened?" he exclaimed, the babies' cries threatening to drown him out.

"There's been an incident of public indecency at GD," Andy explained. Jack scowled.

"Isn't it Jo's job to deal with that kind of thing?" he complained. "By now she should at least have Fargo and Dr. Marten straightened out."

"I'm afraid it's Ms. Lupo and Dr. Donovan who are responsible for the incident," Andy explained as he knelt, trying to calm Claire. "Yes indeed, your Mommy and Daddy have perpetrated a code 465." Andy cooed to her. Jack stared at him, face gone slack with shock.

"_What_?" he asked, stunned. "That's got to be a prank call," he insisted. Andy didn't look up from where he knelt before Claire.

"It does seem improbable, but the security professional who contacted me had the appropriate codes and identification," Andy explained as he stood to place a now-quieted Jenna in her playpen. Jack shook his head, blinking rapidly.

"Okay," he said. "Okay, then. I'll just… go deal with this. Whatever _this_ is." He looked dazed.

"I can help!" Kevin reiterated. Jack's eyes bulged with alarm.

"No! _No._ You are staying _right here._ The stolen car was bad enough. Add a little soft core porn to the mix, and _your mother will have my lungs on a plate,_" he hissed. Kevin sank back into the couch, arms crossed, gaze defiant. Jack turned to Andy.

"Keep an eye on him," he ordered. "If he so much as tries to step a toe out of this office, don't hesitate to lock him into that cell."

"_Jack_," Kevin complained, aghast. Jack gave him a sharp look.

"Zoe tells me the pillow is _awesome_," he told him.

"You got it, Sheriff," Andy told him, as he pulled a still-wailing Claire from her car seat. Jack strode out of the office, rubbing his forehead with frustration. It had all seemed so _easy_ this morning.

* * *

Jack was cautious as he approached the FTL lab from the hallway of Section 5. For a moment, he hesitated outside the door, and was horrified to realize he could hear the faintest hint of _giggling_ from behind the door, followed by the murmur of voices. His courage quailed in the face of his sincere desire to be somewhere, _anywhere_, else.

"Space is looking better by the minute," he muttered to himself, then realized with horror that it would take a retinal scan to open the door. He'd been given access, of course, by the uncomfortable looking member of Jo's security team who'd met him when he arrived (and while Jack appreciated that the loyal man had not wanted to put Jo in a more awkward position than necessary by sending another member of her team, he couldn't say he appreciated the vote of confidence). No, Jack's concern was the possibility that his eyes might still be open long enough after a retinal scan to do what they did best, and _see._ He was pretty sure there would be no scrubbing away of that mental image. He would just have to close them very, very quickly…

Resigning himself to his fate, Jack leaned forward to the retinal scanner, snapping his eyes shut as soon as it was done: and not a minute too soon, as the door slid open only seconds later. He stepped nervously toward the sound.

"Jo?" Jack called out, with no idea what to expect. He heard rustling in front of him, slightly to the left, followed by an indistinct murmur.

"Carter?" he heard Jo say, sounding puzzled. She sounded so unruffled that Jack started to relax, starting to believe he'd been set up after all. Well, this would be awkward to explain, but they would both have a laugh over it later. Or maybe in a week. He opened his eyes.

_OH God, skin._ He snapped them closed again, feeling panicky.

"Uh – Jo, Zane – could you maybe put some clothes on?" he pled. There was a pause.

"I'm good, thanks," Zane said airily. _Oh, for the love of –_

"Clothes, NOW, or I'll have to cuff you naked." Jack shot back at him. A moment passed, in which Jack began to regret his choice of words. There was a snicker from somewhere in front of him.

"No offense, Carter, but I'm really not into – " There were no words for how much Jack did _not _want to know what Zane was or was not into.

"Clothes, now," he growled, and was rewarded by the rustling of clothes on the move, and the jingle of a belt being tightened.

"Decent as I'll ever be, Carter," Zane said, laughter in his voice. Jack cracked open an eye, only to see Zane regarding him with amusement while Jo refastened her hip holster. He opened both his eyes, relieved.

"_Seriously_?" Jack asked them both, his annoyance returning as his mortification receded. "I'm spending my day off watching your kid, and this is what I get in return? _My day off, Jo,_" he griped. She had the grace to look somewhat abashed, though Zane returned his gaze unrepentantly. Jack jerked his head towards the door sharply.

"Let's go," he said.

* * *

By the time they reached the infirmary, Jack had finally managed to stop contemplating his need for brain bleach. Jo and Zane had lapsed into silence, Jo looking uncomfortable and Zane looking mutinous. Holly Marten looked up as they walked in, red hair flying, headphones in her ears.

"Oh! You're here. Well of course you're here, I mean, it's your job to be here," she babbled. Jack gave her a perfunctory hello before turning to Jo.

"You think you can keep your hands off McDreamy here long enough to keep an eye on her," Jack jerked his head in Dr. Marten's direction, "and Fargo?" His gaze fell pointedly to Zane's hand where it rested on her lower back. Jo flushed.

"Of course," she asserted.

"Great. I have to go deal with – " Jack's phone rang, and he let out a long breath before answering it.

"Carter," he answered. He listened to the voice at the other end of the line for a few minutes before he responded. "I'll go look into it." Jack hung up and gave Jo a sharp look. "Andy needs me to go check out reports of a landslide near Henry's garage." The unspoken _because he's busy watching the kids,_ came through loud and clear, and Jo winced.

"Right," she said. "I'll keep an eye on things here." Jack gave her a conciliatory nod before turning to jog out of the room.

Barely a moment had passed before Zane nudged her.

"C'mon, Jo, Marten is doing well enough babysitting herself," Jo glanced at Dr. Marten, who was talking the ear off one of the members of the infirmary staff. He raised his eyebrows. She frowned at him, and shook her head. He gave her a slow smirk, and Jo licked her lips before her eyes flickered back to Dr. Marten. She was a grown woman, Jo told herself. It wasn't like she needed a babysitter…

* * *

Jack stopped at the Sheriff's office on his way out toward Henry's. He was concerned about Kevin's behavior – was, in fact, starting to become concerned about a few things in his relationship with Allison's son. His lack of knowledge about the new timeline was proving to be sticking point in the already difficult transition from his friendship with Allison to his relationship with her. The last thing he wanted was to create problems for Allison in her new relationship with her son.

That was why, despite his better judgment, he was standing in his office, about to invite Kevin along with him to check out the situation by Henry's.

"Ah – Kevin?" The teenager was slumped on the couch, television on, and Jack was forced to hide a smile at the sight of Jenna gumming on her oblivious big brother's sleeve. Andy was seated at the desk across the room, Claire balanced carefully as she drank from her bottle.

"Yeah?" Kevin asked, not even removing his eyes from the television screen.

"How would you like to check out the disturbance by Henry's with me?" Jack asked. Kevin lit up with excitement.

"Yeah?" he asked again, this time bursting with enthusiasm. Jack said nothing, just gestured toward the door. "Sweet!" Kevin said, jumping up from the couch and jostling his little sister, who scowled at the interruption. Jack nodded at Andy.

"All set?" Andy gave him a cheerful wink.

"All set, Sheriff!" he responded, and Jack trailed Kevin out to his Jeep.

* * *

Jack nearly drove straight off the road when he caught sight of the so-called 'rock slide,' which was not so much a slide as a float.

"Whoa," he said as he pulled over. "Well. This just got weirder." Kevin trailed him out of the car, jaw hanging.

"Cool," he opined. Jack grabbed his phone and dialed. It rang once, twice, three times, and Jack was starting to think she would never pick up when a female voice said, "Hello?"

"Jo! Something weird is going on out by Henry's," he said. "You should get out here."

"Oh! This isn't Ms. Lupo, this is Dr. Holly Marten," Dr. Marten explained rapidly on the other line. "Remember, you met me before? I'm not sure where Ms. Lupo and Dr. Donovan went, but I'm afraid she left her phone behind in her jacket, and when I heard it ring I thought that it might be important, so I decided to pick up." There was a pause. "You don't think she'll mind, do you?" Dr. Marten asked. Jack shook his head, baffled.

"Uh – I, uh – no, I'm sure she'll appreciate your help," he told her, not certain of any such thing, but needing a little help himself (and frustrated with Jo – where had she gone now?) "Actually, I could really use a hand." Jack stared at the frozen rock slide. "Are you any good with… ah, physics?"

"Oh, well, I'm a rocket scientist," Dr. Marten said, by way of explanation. "So yes," she added after a long pause.

"Great!" Jack said, relieved. "You said you had Jo's jacket, right?"

"Yes," said Dr. Marten, sounding confused.

"Take her keys – you know where her car is, don't you? – and call me back, I can direct you to the bridge."

"Oh, no, that's fine, I can find it myself – I brought a map of Eureka."

"Ah. Right," Carter replied, thrown off. "Right. Well… then I'll see you when you get here." He hung up, staring at the frozen rock slide before him.

"So not good," he muttered.

* * *

Dr. Marten took a little longer to show up than Jack had expected, after her comment about having a map.

"You find your way okay?" He asked her when she stepped out of the car.

"Oh, yes, it's just that Dr. Parrish let this herd of dogs let loose from the behavioral science lab. They needed some help," Dr. Marten explained. "I totally get it, of course. I mean, yes, research requires test subjects, and no, they weren't being harmed, but they're all cooped up in there – " Jack cut her off.

"Dr. Parrish?" he asked, taken aback. True, Parrish was a royal pain, and not above a prank or two, but he'd never struck Jack as the 'save the animals' type, and he rarely got involved with a caper that the other party hadn't earned their retribution for – his i-mine attack on Fargo being case in point. Jack narrowed his eyes, remembering the last time the town had let their inhibitions loose.

"Where did Jo and Zane disappear to?" he questioned. "She should have been busy with those dogs." But something else had claimed Holly Marten's attention.

"Woah," she said, eyes fixed on the frozen landslide.

"I know, right?" Kevin asked, still staring at it himself.

"Yeah," she breathed, glancing at him. Mind still spinning with his suspicions, Jack turned back to the problem at hand.

"Ah – so what is it?" he asked, nodding towards the rocks.

"It's a landslide but the rocks aren't moving," Dr. Marten explained. Jack reminded himself, not for the first time that day, that he had to be _patient_ with the scientists. "It must be some kind of stasis field," she continued. Jack turned to look at her, frowning.

"Stasis field?" he asked. "Like a – like a frozen bubble in time?"

"Well, it only looks like time has stopped. Stopping time would violate the uncertainty principle." Dr. Marten explained. "The rocks are still moving, only at a rate imperceptible to the naked eye." She paused, looking at the landslide before she looked back at Carter. "Have you ever played Warhammer?" she asked suddenly. Jack stared at her, working his jaw, speechless. She shrugged off his non-response.

"Never mind," she said, turning back to the landslide. "It looks like it's still expanding," she noted. Behind them, Kevin began edging back toward the cars as Dr. Marten leaned over to pick up a stray rock. "Check this out." She stood and tossed it into the stasis field. The rock hit the stasis field and hung in midair.

"What happens if a person gets stuck in there?" Jack asked, a feeling of foreboding washing over him. Dr. Marten bit her lip.

"It's… not good," she offered, giving him a sideways look.

"Because there's not enough to worry about," Jack grumbled. The sound of a car starting behind them and squealing away in reverse tore his attention away from the stasis field. For a moment, they could only stare. He watched as Kevin spun around to face in the other direction, narrowly missing Jo's bumper.

"Woah!" he shouted in alarm, as Kevin switched the gears into drive and sped away in the opposite direction. "_Seriously_?" Jack shouted. He spun around to face Dr. Marten, who was wringing her hands.

"I'm so sorry, I should have noticed he left, he was right next to me," she apologized. Jack shook his head, still stunned.

"No, no, it's not your fault, but I'm going to need you to give me a ride," he said. She blinked.

"Oh! Well, that I can do," Dr. Marten assured him.

* * *

They were halfway back to GD when Jack got a call from Andy.

"Sheriff, I thought you might like to know that Kevin is back at your office," he informed Jack brightly. Jack's eyebrows shot up, practically reaching his hairline.

"Thanks Andy," he said to his deputy. "Take a right here," he said in an aside to Dr. Marten. "We're going to make a detour to the Sheriff's office." The redhead nodded, and Jack returned to his conversation with Andy.

"Did he happen to say what was so urgent he had to steal my car – _again_?" Jack asked, annoyed.

"He says he had to look something up," Andy conveyed from the muffled voice Jack could hear in the background. Jack drummed his fingers on his leg. "Keep an eye on him, Andy," he instructed. "We're on our way. ETA five minutes."

"You got it, Sheriff," the android deputy replied, and Jack hung up. The rest of the drive passed in silence.

* * *

When they finally reached his office, the sheriff was out the door and running before Holly had even managed to take the key out of the ignition. By the time Holly had processed the motion, he had vanished and she was the only one left in the car. She put the key in her bag and stepped out of the car, hesitating for only a moment before following him into the sheriff's office.

Inside the office, chaos reigned. Kevin was standing behind the sheriff's desk, looking defiant; Sheriff Carter was holding a toddler – Holly frowned slightly, confused – and the phone was ringing. Another man she hadn't seen before picked up the phone.

"Sheriff's office, Deputy Andy," Holly's eyes widened as she realized that had to be the AI deputy she'd heard so much about. She watched as he turned back to the Sheriff hastily, as if he'd just remembered something. "Oh, be careful, she just," Holly flinched as the toddler spat up on the Sheriff. "Ate," the Deputy finished. "Huh. Oh, dear." He turned back to the phone.

Holly's eyes widened as the Sheriff approached her.

"Here, take Jenna for a second would you?" He asked, proffering the wide-eyed toddler.

"Oh, no, I really couldn't," Holly protested, but he ignored her. "Oh – well – okay," she stammered out as he thrust the toddler into her arms and turned heel to head for the bathroom door.

"Hi." She said to the toddler, holding her like a volatile canister of rocket fuel. "I'm Holly." She took a few cautious steps, barely taking her eyes off of the child in her arms, and took a seat on the nearby couch. Deputy Andy tossed her the towel from his shoulder, and she placed it between the toddler and herself like a shield. An unexpected movement to her left caught her eye, and she was startled to realize there was a second, younger child watching her from a nearby car carrier.

"Hello, there," she stammered. The Deputy, having finished fielding the latest phone call, stepped over and plucked the younger child from her car carrier.

"Dr. Marten, Claire Donovan," he introduced, bouncing the baby, who twisted in his arms to watch Holly. "She seems to like you!" Holly stared at the baby, torn between curiosity and discomfort.

"I didn't know Dr. Donovan had a daughter," she said, finally. Andy beamed.

"Oh, yes, Dr. Donovan and Chief Lupo did, about four months ago now." He bounced Claire a little, and the baby girl gave Holly a gummy grin – and Holly was nonplussed to recognize that, yes, those blue eyes bore an eerie similarity to the ones she'd last seen in the infirmary. The deputy had just turned to busy himself with heating a bottle of milk, when Sheriff Carter reappeared from the bathroom wearing his uniform.

"So much for my day off," he muttered when Holly turned to look at him. He crossed the room to open the safe by the desk and put his gun into its holster, then turned around to stare at the teenager behind his desk.

"Are you singing the theme from Cops?" The sheriff asked, disbelieving.

"Man, it's stuck in my head," Kevin complained, throwing his hands up in frustration. "It was the first song in that playlist."

"What playlist?" Sheriff Carter asked, distracted, as he locked the safe.

"I downloaded a bunch of stuff off the server this morning – you know, stuff we could crank up while we joke around – like I do every time we hang out," Kevin said, giving the sheriff a sideways look. Holly bounced Jenna on her knee while she watched. The sheriff's face was suddenly thoughtful.

"Songs about what?" he asked, peering over Kevin's shoulder. "Like, ah - crime fighting?" Kevin gave him a weird look.

"Mostly, yeah," he said, sounding confused.

"Huh," the sheriff said. "What else is on this playlist?" He asked, eying the computer. Holly thought he looked suspicious. "Who let the dogs out…" He turned toward her, and she froze. "You said somebody let the dogs out of the lab," he questioned.

"Ah – yes, I believe it was , um – Dr. Parrish?" Holly said, giving him a strange look. Carter's lips twitched, as if he were trying not to laugh.

"Dr. Parrish. Right." He turned back to the computer. "Where's this server?" he asked Kevin.

"Café Diem," the teenager replied, turning to glance at him. The sheriff glanced up at Holly.

"You should get back to GD," he told her. "Go find Zane and Jo – Dr. Donovan and Chief Lupo," he amended in response to her puzzled look. "They're going to need to know about the, ah, stasis field." He glanced back down to Kevin. "_You_ – are going to take me to this server." Holly nodded, and began to stand up – but stopped, looking down at the toddler in her lap, who was currently chewing her own fingers.

"Um," she said, at a loss. Deputy Andy beamed at her. "Just put her in her playpen, and I'll keep an eye on her," he assured her. Holly nodded and stood, moving to put Jenna in the playpen with no small amount of caution. "Right," she said, turning to Carter. "Um, I'll see you back at GD?" He nodded, and gestured toward the door to the office.

"After you," he said, and followed her out the door, Kevin trailing behind him.

* * *

Holly was back in GD and on her way to the infirmary when she heard the crash. She flinched, startled, and scanned the hallway for the source of the disturbance. There was nothing... but Holly began to realize she could hear muffled voices from the nearby closet labeled 'cleaning supplies'. She stepped closer, cautiously.

"...God only knows what's in here! Or have you forgotten the goo that was trying to _eat_ people!" Holly reared back, giving the door a perplexed look. 'Goo' that ate people? That sounded... well, very peculiar. And improbable. There was a muffled response, and some rustling, before the door swung open and Holly froze.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, for there was Jo Lupo, her long dark hair loose and messy over her shoulders, her clothing rumpled. Ms. Lupo gave Holly an uncomfortable smile.

"Uh - hi, Holly," she said. Holly blinked as Dr. Donovan appeared over Ms. Lupo's shoulder and gave her a bright smile.

"Oh, hey there Dr. Marten," he chirped. Holly opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again before finally finding her words.

"Sheriff Carter is looking for you," she managed to inform them. Ms. Lupo cursed and began patting down her business suit.

"My phone," she began, glancing back at the closet.

"Oh! No, you left it in the infirmary. Along with your, uh, suit jacket and your keys," Holly explained. Ms. Lupo winced. "I answered your phone," Holly told her apologetically. "Sheriff Carter needed a hand, so... I also borrowed your car," she blurted before digging the keys out of her pocket and handing them to Ms. Lupo, who stared at her.

"Oookay then," Ms. Lupo said finally, turning to Dr. Donovan and tilting her head toward the hallway. "Infirmary?" she suggested to him, and began walking without waiting for an answer. Dr. Donovan flashed another mischievous grin at Holly. She was reminded immediately of the infant in the Sheriff's office with Dr. Donovan's bright blue eyes, which in turn caused her to turn one last wide-eyed glance to the storage closet before racing after them.

"Is there somewhere we could pull up a map of Eureka?" she called after them. "Mine isn't large enough, and Sheriff Carter needs help with a stasis field issue." The two ahead of her slowed down and turned to face her.

"Stasis field?" Dr. Donovan asked, sharing a concerned look with Ms. Lupo. Holly nodded.

"Yes, it's really very impressive," she informed him. Ms. Lupo met his eyes.

"We'd better hurry," she said, and they turned back in the direction of the infirmary, picking up their pace.

When they reached the infirmary, Ms. Lupo's phone was already ringing. She picked up swiftly.

"Lupo," she answered. Holly watched as a frown formed on her face. "Carter?" she asked. "Carter, what is going on?" she asked again. "Carter!" Jo hung up. "Something's going on at Café Diem," she said, looking back at Zane and Holly. "Carter thinks people are acting weird because of the music."

"Before I left the Sheriff's office, he said he and Kevin were going to check on a server," Holly piped up. Dr. Donovan frowned.

"The server in Café Diem? That controls the music for the whole town. If something on the server is affecting people…" he trailed off, looking at Ms. Lupo, who pursed her lips.

"We need to go to my office," she said. "I have interactive maps of GD there, and Fargo's there." Holly frowned.

"Why would the Director be in your office?" she asked. Dr. Donovan and Ms. Lupo exchanged another wordless look.

"…he was acting a little oddly," Ms. Lupo said, nose scrunched with amusement. She nodded at the door to the hallway.

"Let's go," she said. "I'll call Carter on the way and tell him to meet us there."

* * *

Jack caught up with them in Jo's office, where they were speaking in low, concerned voices.

"In the last hour it's expanded half a kilometer," Zane said to Holly and Jo as Jack walked in.

"Who cares about some stupid stasis field? We all know what the real threat is here." Fargo cut in. Jack raised his eyebrows. Fargo was even worse off than he'd realized. Across the room, Holly stared at Fargo, no doubt having connected the dots and realized by now who it was he was out to get.

"How long until it reaches us?" Jo asked.

"I'll run some calculations," Zane muttered, punching in numbers to his tablet.

"Seven minutes at the current rate of expansion," Holly cut in, making Zane raise his eyebrows. "Or thereabouts," she added.

"Is there a way to tell where it's coming from?" Jo demanded, at the same time running a soothing hand down the length of her fiance's spine.

"The point of origin seems to be in this radius - here." Holly gestured at the map, making both Jo and Zane lean in. Zane's hand ghosted over the curve of Jo's waist, and Jack groaned in annoyance. He had been glad to see Jo and Zane back in commission, but he was now finding he still couldn't quite look Jo in the eye, and the way she kept trailing her fingers over Zane's arm wasn't helping. In fact, he was pretty sure he was going to have nightmares.

"Will you cut it out with the - the touching, and the footsie, guys? I mean, seriously," he complained. Jo gave him a puzzled look.

"What are you talking about, Carter?" She asked, turning back to the maps.

"_Seriously?_" he half-shouted, exasperated. "I don't think I've seen you take your hands off each other _once_ in the last five minutes!" Jo glanced down at Zane's hand where it was brushing her waist as if she hadn't even realized it was there, and frowned as if confused, knitting her eyebrows together. Jack narrowed his eyes.

"Were you... listening to music earlier?" he questioned. Jo's eyes widened.

"Well, yes, but - " Jack cut her off.

"_What_, exactly, were you listening to?" he demanded. Jo bit her lip, catching Zane's eyes from across the room and making him fidget. Her eyes darted to Zane's.

"The Red Hot Chili Peppers," she admitted. Jack blinked.

"Well, no wonder you're all over each other today," he rubbed his forehead with a hint of exasperation.

"It's got to be more than just a bug in the automatic update," Fargo protested. "I mean - I _hate_ her!" Holly flinched and stepped away, her eyes widening.

"Like I said... he's... been acting oddly." Jo apologized, shooting Fargo a sharp look.

"Sorry," Fargo said, not sounding the least bit contrite. Holly blinked then brushed it off.

"It's okay," she waved a dismissive hand, turning to Jack. "Maybe there's a predisposition at play," she suggested. "The songs are feeding an impulse that's already there." Jo's eyes widened with a combination of dawning realization and impending mortification. Jack bit his lip, amused despite himself.

"Ah - Zane, Jo? Does that sound about right to you?" Jo opened her mouth to respond before closing it again. Zane crossed his arms over his chest.

"Might be," he said, looking unrepentant.

"The mesolimbic system is the part of the brain responsible for hypnotic suggestivity." Holly cut in. "If the region were hyperactivated due to frequency progressions within the music, it would explain why you felt compelled to act on the lyrics."

"So we've been hypnotized," Zane clarified, glancing at Jo as he did.

"Influenced," Holly corrected. "Like with neurolinguistic programming." Her face dropped with dismay, her eyes widening. "Oh..." Her hand flew to her mouth almost as if she were resisting the urge to bite her nails.

"What?" Jo narrowed her eyes.

"Ah - what if someone new to Eureka had an... ipod? Filled with NLP infused MP3 files?" Holly asked nervously, no doubt already guessing at the answer.

"Well, the jukebox wirelessly downloads all music files from an outside source. It could have embedded the hypnotic programming into all the music files." There was a pause, before Jo stepped forward, her heels hitting the tiled floor with deliberate slowness. Her arms were crossed over her chest.

"You caused this?" She growled. Jack shifted in place, preparing for the possibility that he'd need to step between the two. Jo did not handle embarrassment well.

"Now I really hate her!" Fargo snarled, in perfect agreement with Jo. Carter stepped in, waving a placating hand toward Fargo.

"Take it easy, Fargo," he rebuked before turning to Holly. "Can you reverse it?" He asked.

"Maybe. Probably," Holly stammered, flustered. "I would have to adjust the pitch frequencies to program everyone individually. Theoretically, I - " Jo cut in, impatient and furious.

"Oh, God, can you do it or not?" she snapped. Holly's eyes widened with alarm.

"Yes," she squeaked. A beeping from the maps behind them drew Zane away from the conversation.

"The stasis field has breached GD!" he warned them.

"There won't be time to cure everybody," Holly fretted, eyes wide.

"What if we reprogram the person who created the field - get them to stop it, it will buy us some more time." Jo suggested.

"Yeah, if we can find them," Zane said, throwing Jo a worried look over Holly's head.

"Well, where is the point of origin?" Jo asked him. Zane looked back at the map.

"See how it's fanning out wider as it goes?" he asked, pointing at the map. "And we first discovered it over here in a smaller area, we just have to connect the dots to find the vertex of the angle..." Jack's phone rang and he stepped away from the map.

"Hello?" he asked, then frowned as he listened to the person on the other end of the line. "Alright. Thanks, Kevin. You've been a big help. I'll head straight out." He hung up the phone and looked ar the group gathered around the maps. "Hey, guys, Kevin just called. He says the stasis field originated at..."

"Henry's garage," Zane and Jo chorused. "We know." Jo added.

"Well, it wasn't an accident," Jack continued. "The last song they accessed was 'I'll Stop the World and Melt for You'," he told them.

"They're trying to live out the song," Jo murmured, staring at the maps. She looked at the others. "Okay," she said, voice authoritative. "Carter, you and I will go to Henry's. Whatever is generating the field needs to be shut down fifteen minutes ago. Zane, stay here and help Dr. Marten did the music files." She began walking to the door.

"Hey! What about me?" Fargo protested. "I don't want to get trapped in the stasis field!" Jo rolled her eyes.

"Fine," she said. "Zane, bring him with you to deal with the music programming." She turned to leave, as did Carter, but Zane reached out to grab her arm, stopping her short.

"Hey," he asked in a low voice. "Good luck kiss?" Jo gave him a slow smile before tugging him forward by the collar and kissing him, hard. In front of them, Carter turned around.

"You coming, Jo?" Jack asked as he faced them. That was when he realized why she was suddenly so quiet. "Aw, come on!" He groaned. Jo pulled away from Zane slowly. "See you when we get back," she promised before stepping away. Jack rolled his eyes but turned back to the door. This time, Jo followed him, but as she stepped through the door she threw Zane a warm smile, full of suggestion, before disappearing into the hallway.

* * *

Jack and Jo sped all the way out to Henry's, knowing that every minute wasted was another minute closer to disaster. When they arrived at Henry's garage, however, the stasis field had long since grown to include both doors into the garage. They stared at the garage in dismay.

"Carter," Jo said, her voice solemn, as her eyes flickered over the nearly-engulfed structure of the garage.

"I told Andy to get Kevin, Jenna, and Claire to safety," he said, answering her unspoken question without even turning his head. Some of the tension in Jo's shoulders released right away.

"There's a small window up by the roof there," Jo pointed out. "But Carter, neither of us could fit through there, baby weight or no." The sound of another car pulling up behind them drew their attention away from the garage.

"Well, I _thought_ Andy was taking Kevin, Claire and Jenna to safety," Jack said, annoyed, as Kevin came bounding up from the Deputy car. Andy wasn't driving, so there was at least the comfort of knowing Claire and Jenna were probably on their way to somewhere safe, but it came at the price of knowing Kevin had stolen and illegally driven a car once again. He sighed.

"Jack! I can help!" Kevin insisted. Jack ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

"How? How can you help?" he demanded, looking to Jo for support. But Jo was eying a window on the wall closest to them.

"Kevin, do you think you could make it through that window?" she asked. Kevin turned to face her, and she pointed to the window.

"Yeah, I can swing it," Kevin claimed. Jo studied him then nodded.

"Okay," she said, pulling off her jacket. "Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to break through that window. I'll try to clear the glass for you, but we're in a hurry. We can use my jacket for padding but you'll have to _be careful_." She wrapped her jacket around her fist, and Jack stared at her.

"Jo!" he yelped. Jo shrugged.

"We've got to get in there somehow, Carter," she pointed out, as she wrapped her jacket around her left fist and pulled the nearby bench over to the window.

"I think I liked it better when you were all over Zane," Jack muttered as Jo punched through the window. She knocked several large shards of glass out of the window before arranging her jacket over the bottom of the window and stepping aside to let Kevin through.

"_Be careful_," she emphasized once more. Kevin gave her a quick nod before he turned back to scramble through the window. As Kevin's head disappeared through the window, Carter rounded on Jo.

"Allison is going to _kill_ me," he hissed. "Are you insane?" Jo crossed her arms over her chest.

"Allison came seconds away from blowing up Claire's father to save six strangers just three weeks ago," she reminded him. "Kevin is saving the entire town. Anyway, I'm sure he'll be fine." Jack gaped at her.

"So this is what, revenge?" he questioned. "What the hell _were_ you listening to this morning?" Jo shook her head.

"This is the best chance we have, Carter. You know I'm right." Jack took a moment to absorb her words.

"...you're a little scary sometimes, you know that?" he muttered finally. Jo smiled to herself.

"How else am I supposed to make these people behave?" she pointed out. He dipped his head in silent agreement just as Kevin stepped out of the garage doors. The teenager held up his hands in a display of success.

"Stasis field, all gone!" he boasted. Jo raised her eyebrows at Jack with silent satisfaction.

"Great job, Kevin," she said, and Jack gave him a proud nod despite himself.

"Nice job, deputy," he conceded, before pulling Kevin into a hug. Behind them, Jo smiled.

"Well, then," she said. "Let's see what they've got for us at GD."

* * *

Jo grinned behind Carter, reflecting that, for a member of law enforcement, he could be pretty oblivious. They'd eventually managed to reverse the effects of the neurolinguistic programming upload, though not in time to prevent the hangovers that were facing half the town tomorrow morning. It had been an uphill battle just for her to get into the café, but as far as Jo could tell, Carter was oblivious to the ongoing dance party outside.

In fact, at the moment it seemed all Eureka's sheriff was interested in was the toddler he had balanced on his knee. Jo raised her eyebrows as Carter muttered something mostly indistinguishable to Jenna.

"…but you sleep, and you eat, and you poop... and I think you like it that way," He finished, shaking his head in mock-disappointment.

"Preach it, sister," Jo said, making Carter jump.

"Jo!" He exclaimed, swiveling his head.

"Oh, hey, Carter," she said, nonchalant. Her eyes brightened when turned her gaze to the car seat by his feet.

"Hey Claire-bear," she said, rounding the table to kneel before her daughter. "How are you doing, huh, sweetie?" Claire watched her mother with wide blue eyes, making Jo smile. She reached out to unclasp Claire from her chair, lifting the little girl to her shoulder.

"I'm sorry Mama was too busy to visit today, baby girl," she said, running her hand over the downy fluff on top of the infant's head. "We had some important things to do at work."

"Mama nearly made a baby brother for you today," Zane interjected in a stage whisper from over Jo's shoulder. She shot him a glare, and he grinned at her, his expression shouting 'who, me?' In front of them, Carter looked torn between disgust and amusement.

"Thanks for watching her today, Carter," Jo said, her embarrassment palpable in the way she couldn't quite look him in the eye. She leaned down to place Claire back in the car seat, wincing as Claire clutched at her blouse with small but determined fists and began to fuss.

"It's really Andy you should thank," Carter deflected. "He ended up with them for most of the day. I was busy chasing down your brother," he cooed at Jenna. "Yes I was." Jo hid a smile as she lifted the car seat and indicated a nearby table with a jerk of her chin.

"We're going to get dinner... but feel free to let us know if you need some help with that," she said, gesturing to the toddler on his lap. Carter didn't bother to look away from Jenna.

"I think we're doing just fine, but thanks," he said, and Jo smiled to herself as she noticed Allison appearing in the doorway to the cafe. As she and Zane walked away, she could hear Allison greeting Carter.

"Why are people out there dancing in the street?"

* * *

It was late when Zane and Jo finally got home from dinner that night. After the impromptu rave, Cafe Diem had been a mess, and the clean-up had been time-consuming even with the cafe's full crew on hand. It had taken twice as long to get their food as usual, and it wasn't long after their food did arrive that Claire began to get fussy. They'd scarfed their dinners, barely tasting the food in their haste, before making themselves scarce, tired baby in tow. They'd arrived home to the sight of Andy, ready and willing to take up his nighttime babysitter duties.

Jo had gladly handed over the sleepy baby, long past ready to crawl into her own bed and wipe this day from her memory entirely. But Zane, it seemed, had other plans.

"Zane, what are you doing?" Jo asked, a hint of panic in her voice as she turned around to catch Zane fiddling with the stereo system.

"Relax, Jo-Jo. The server is fixed, remember?" He pointed out. Jo slumped into the couch.

"Zane, Carter saw us _naked_ today. I just want to go to bed and pretend this day never happened." She complained. Scrolling through a playlist, Zane flashed her a grin.

"If it's any comfort, I think the only person who wants to forget it more than you is Carter," he said, amused. Jo groaned. Making one last adjustment, Zane stood up and grabbed Jo's hand, pulling her up from the couch and into his arms.

"Come on," he said. Jo gave a confused laugh.

"Zane, what..." she trailed off as music began to play.

"This day is _not_ going to ruin the Chili Peppers for us," he said, determined, tugging her away from the couches and onto the hardwood floor. Jo rolled her eyes as he began swaying, dragging her along with him, but then she recognized the song, and her eyes softened. She wrapped her arms around his neck and began to sway with him.

"Closet romantic," she accused fondly. He gave her a soft smile.

"The things a guy will do to get laid," he said, but his tone belied his words.

_Do you want me to show up for duty  
And serve this woman in all of her beauty and  
Finally you have found something perfect and  
Finally you have found yourself, with me_

Jo let her head dip to Zane's shoulder, resting it in the crook between his neck and his shoulder.

"Zane?" She murmured. He gazed down at her, lifting one hand to stroke her hair.

"Yeah, Jo-Jo?" He asked. She smiled up at him, the corners of her eyes crinkling.

"I love you too," she said. He pulled her closer to him and pressed his face into her hair.

"I know," he murmured, closing his eyes, a small smile of contentment on his lips.

* * *

Disclaimer: Eureka is not mine. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and their song "Hard to Concentrate," are definitely not mine. I also borrowed a phrase from Veronica Mars at the end there, just because.

A/N: I figured, there's no Eureka on tonight, so I should do something, right? And here you are. Once more, much thanks to Wyndes for all of her wisdom, writing and otherwise.

-A


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